Savage Storm Tripped Up in Opening Day Matches

ODESSA, Texas – Southeastern opened the 2022 season with a pair of losses at the Dr. Steve Aicinena "Iceman" invitational in Odessa, Texas, dropping a back-and-forth dogfight to host Texas-Permian basin on Thursday evening after opening the day with a 3-0 loss to Augustana in the opener.
 
The losses drop the Savage Storm to 0-2 to open the season heading into a pair of Saturday matches versus University of the Southwest at 11 a.m. and Eastern New Mexico at 3 p.m.
 
D'Nari Mills paced the Storm offense in a big way versus the Falcons with 19 kills across five sets, while Jessica Hardin followed with nine kills.
 
Ruthie Forson would hand out 31 assists over her four sets of action, with McKenzie Turkoly handing out five in the first set.
 
Patience Lewis would lead the defense with 23 digs, while Mills picked up 16, followed by Payton Kriegel's 15 and Hardin adding in 12.
 
Southeastern found itself in a dogfight in its second match of the day despite getting off to a slow start by dropping sets one and two by matching scores of 25-12.
 
Southeastern would rally in the third set, jumping out to an early 7-2 lead and holding the edge throughout the set on its way to a 25-21 win in the set.
 
The teams would battle early in set four, playing to ties in the teens and then going back-and-forth down the stretch before SE broke a 23-23 tie with kills from Mills and Hardin to win the set 25-23 and tie the match at 2-2.
 
In the fifth set, UTPB jumped out to an 8-2 lead, but the Storm would take eight of the next 10 points to knot the set at 10-10, but the Falcons would take five of the final seven points to win the deciding set 15-12.
 
Lexi Davila paced the SE offense in its opener versus Augustana, picking up six kills in the match, with D'Nari Mills and Maci Morrison next in line with four each.
 
McKenzie Turkoly handled the setting duties over the first two set, putting up a team-high 10 assists before Ruthie Forson stepped in for set three and handed out five.
 
Defensively, Patience Lewis led the way with eight digs while Mills and Jessie Steele added six apiece.
 
SE was neck-and-neck through the first set, playing to ties at 14-14, 19-19 and finally at 22-22 before the Vikings would take the final three rallies to swipe the set 25-22.
 
A an eight-point mid-match run in set two would give AU the advantage on its way to taking that set 25-14 and a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
The Storm would fall victim to a 10-3 run in the third set that saw the Vikings take the lead, one SE would not overcome, dropping the set 25-18.