Storm Tripped Up by HSU in Five Sets

DURANT, Okla. – Maya Afflerbach collected a career-high 18 kills but it was not enough to lift Southeastern in a 3-2 loss on Saturday night to Henderson State in Bloomer Sullivan Gymnasium.
 
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 7-10 overall on the season and 4-5 in Great American Conference play.
 
Afflerbach's 18 kills crushed her previous match best of 10 earlier in the season, while Griffith posted her fifth-straight double-digit kill outing with 12.
 
Skylor Lewis was just shy of double figures with eight, while Ruthie Forson added seven and Madison Martinez chipped in six.
 
Forson also dished out 43 assists to lead all setters in the match while also adding nine digs and a block.
 
Grace Shehadeh posted her own career-high with 38 digs to lead al defenders, while Lewis chipped in 15 and Micah Stiggers was at 12. Both Forson and McKenzie Turkoly finished with nine digs each.
 
Afflerbach also added a team-high three blocks on defense, while Martinez and Griffith added two apiece.
 
The Storm found itself trailing 24-21 late in the opening set, but a Martinez kill would kick off a huge rally as the Storm would score five-straight points to win the set 26-24.
 
Set two was a back-and-forth contest until HSU would break a 7-7 tie with a 14-3 run to take a 21-9 lead.  The Storm would take seven of the next 11 points, but would drop the set 25-16.
 
The Reddies would open the third set with five-straight points and SE never recovered as they would fall behind 2-1 with a 25-13 loss in the set.
 
Southeastern dug deep in set four, with the teams playing to an 11-11 tie before the Storm would take a lead.  That lead would not extend more than three points and was sitting at 21-19 when SE finished the set on a 4-1 run to take it 25-20 and force a fifth set.
 
SE would take the first point and held a 7-5 lead near the midway point of the set. HSU would answer from that point with five-straight points to take a 10-7 lead and the Storm would not recover, dropping the deciding set 15-9.