THE RUNDOWN
DBU (9-4) got back on track Tuesday night with a 3-0 sweep over non-conference foe Southern Nazarene (7-11) at the Burg Center.
Halee Van Poppel led all players with 13 kills, while four others recorded at least 7 kills and 2 blocks in an all-around effort.
Neither team held a lead larger than four until a 6-0 run gave DBU a 23-18 lead.
Aryn Walton fed both
Alyssa Parks and
Price Reeves to close out the opening frame – a set in which the Lady Patriots notched a .324 hitting percentage.
Looking to go up 2-0, DBU jumped out to a 10-5 advantage on a pair of SNU attack errors. The Crimson Storm would pull back to within two at multiple points, including at 22-20 to force a DBU timeout. The Lady Patriots responded, adding a Van Poppel kill to put the pressure on SNU and then capitalizing on two errors to take a 25-22 victory and go up 2-0 in the match.
The third set played out in a similar fashion as the opening frame, with both teams neck-and-neck before a DBU scoring stretch generated some cushion. Reeves and Parks teamed up at the net for a block that extended the lead to 19-15, and a handful of points later, coach
Jordan Fish's squad held a 21-16 edge. With their backs against the wall, the Crimson Storm put together a 6-1 run to tie the game at 22-apiece. Both teams exchanged scores before a strike from
Sofia Black put the Lady Patriots on match point. The next play, Van Poppel received a feed from
Kayla Brock and sent a powerful swing across the court to clinch the final point of the night.
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THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
 - Both
Aryn Walton and
Kayla Brock recorded 17 assists.
 - Five different players (
Halee Van Poppel, 13;
Alyssa Parks, 8;
Audrey Nunes, 8;
Price Reeves, 7;
Sofia Black, 7) notched at least 7 kills.
 - DBU is now 3-0 in non-conference games this season.
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INSIDE THE NUMBERS
.333 – DBU's hitting percentage through the first two sets.
3 – Service aces from the Lady Patriots, compared to SNU's 0.
13 –
Halee Van Poppel has recorded double-digit kills in all 13 matches this season .
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UP NEXT
DBU heads to Denton, Texas, to resume conference play versus Texas Women's on Saturday, October 23 at 2:00 pm.
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