Storm Drop 3-1 Matchup Against NWOSU

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern got a match-high 15 kills from Hannah Grant to lead a trio of attackers with double-digit kills, but saw its bid at a rally run out of gas in a 3-1 loss to Northwestern Oklahoma State on Friday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 1-13 overall and 0-5 in Great American Conference play heading into a Tuesday out-of-conference matchup against Dallas Baptist at 6 p.m. back in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
Grant turned in her match-high 15 kills to lead the way, while Aleksandra Rodic and Malaysia Burns each posted 11 kills in the effort.  McKenzie Turkoly and Caroline Griffith each finished just shy of double-figures with eight kills apiece.
 
Arabella Bouchard returned to action for the first time since Sept. 14, coming off the bench in set two and going on to lead the Storm setters with 27 assists while Jodi Dixon added 18.
 
Defensively, Caitlin Cosby led all back row defenders with a match-high 31 digs, while Rodic completed a double-double by adding 18 digs and Grace Shehadeh turned in 11.  SE posted 81 digs in the match, holding an 81-to-69 edge over NWOSU.
 
Burns added a pair of blocks to lead the Storm defense at the net.
 
Set one was back and forth with the teams fighting to a 23-23 tie. A Burns kill would give SE set point, but the Rangers would survive it.
 
The Storm would hold set point two more times but could not close out the set and NWOSU would reel off three-straight points to swipe the opening set 28-26.
 
Southeastern found itself playing catch up the entire second set, falling behind by as many as five points at two different points in the set, only to close the gap to 23-21 on back-to-back-to-back kills from Griffith, Turkoly, and Burns.  However, the Rangers would answer with the final two points to take the set 25-21 and jump to a 2-0 lead.
 
The Storm finally caught a break in the third set, rallying from three down late with a 6-1 run to take a 24-22 lead.
 
NWOSU would rally to tie the score at 24-24, but SE would score three of the next four points to pick up the 27-25 win.
 
After three nail-biting sets the Storm saw its rally hopes dissipate after the Rangers opened the fourth set on a 12-1 run and would lead by as many as 17-4 before Southeastern put together a 7-2 run of its own to get the score back to 19-11.
 
NWOSU would follow with five-straight points and ultimately take six of the final nine points to secure the 25-14 set win and take the match 3-1.