Volleyball Heads to Alva for a Clash with NWOSU Thursday

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern Oklahoma State will look to bounce back when they head to Alva on Thursday to take on Northwestern Oklahoma State at 6 p.m. from the Percefull Fieldhouse.
 
STORM WATCH
Southeastern (4-7, 1-1) fell in its home opener to East Central on Tuesday in five sets. After falling behind 2-0 in the match, the Savage Storm battled back to win the third and fourth sets before running out of gas in the fifth.
 
SE had three players reach double-figure kills, led by Ruthie Forson, who tallied a career-high 19 kills on a .395 attack average while pacing the side with 42 assists. The Denton, Texas native now ranks second all-time in assists for the Storm with 2778 career assists.
 
Joining Forson, Noelia Rocha and D'Nari Mills recorded 17 and 12 kills, respectively, and Mills would become the fifth player in the SE program to reach 1000 career kills. SE ranks in the top half in both hitting percentage and kills, as the Storm are fourth in the league with a .202 attacking clip and rank sixth in kills, averaging 11.98 per set.  
 
Patience Lewis put in another impressive performance on the back row, recording 37 digs, and now ranks fifth across the GAC with 4.58 digs per set. The junior from Pearland, Texas, leads the blue-and-gold with 197 digs and has also served up a team-high 13 service aces.
 
Thursday's contest between Southeastern and Northwestern Oklahoma State will be the 26^th meeting since the two sides joined the Great American Conference. SE trails the Rangers by one game during this stretch 13-12 and will be looking for its first win over NWOSU since 2022.
 
PREVIEWING NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA STATE
The Rangers are rolling at the moment, having swept its last five opponents, including Southern Nazarene on Tuesday. Northwestern Oklahoma State is 8-5 overall and 2-0 in league play, having swept East Central earlier this season.
 
Last year's GAC Newcomer of the Year, Erika Asencio-Soriano, leads the Ranger attack with 129 kills, averaging 3.15 per set. As a unit, NWOSU is attacking at a .194 clip, which ranks sixth across the conference and is averaging 11.48 kills per set. In NWOSU's last four matches, Asencio-Soriano led the team with 41 kills and  averaged 3.42 kills per set in 12 frames. 
 
NWOSU is one of the best defensive teams in the league, as they lead the GAC in opponent hitting percentage (.119) and are second in blocks with 2.38 denials per frame. The Rangers feature two players in the top ten in blocks, led by Mariela Jimenez, who has 47.0 total blocks and is averaging 1.04 per frame.