CEDAR CITY, Utah - Nov. 5 - Southern Utah women's volleyball used a balanced attack and took advantage of 23 ORU errors to post a 25-18, 25-18, 25-19 sweep over the Golden Eagles on Thursday night.  The victory moves the Thunderbirds to 7-18 overall and 5-10 in conference play, while Oral Roberts drops to 10-13 and 6-8 in the Summit League.

"We have not had a 3-0 win since the first match of the season, so this was pretty special tonight," head coach Debby Baker said.  "We know we will not be going to the conference tournament, but I'm proud of the heart that our girls continue to show.  We are hoping that it will carry over into next year."

Southern Utah captured the first two points of the opening set, but runs and counter runs left the teams tied at 8-8 and later 13-13 in the frame.  The Thunderbirds then went on a 4-0 run, capitalizing on four consecutive Oral Roberts' errors, leading to a visitor's timeout.  The Golden Eagles scored the very next point, but were unable to come any closer as Jazmine Ma'afala punctuated the 25-18 set victory with her team-high sixth kill of the frame.  Overall, Ma'afala hit .714 during the stanza with six kills on seven attempts and only one error.

The T-Birds, once again, recorded the first point of the set as the teams entered the second frame and built a lead of as much as 14-8, forcing an ORU timeout.  SUU had leads of eight on five occasions, including advantages of 18-10, 19-11, 20-12, 21-13 and 22-14 before finally wrapping up the set 25-18 on an Analaine Pelaez kill.

Pelaez continued to lead the T-Bird attack in the third set, collecting eight kills and helping the team break a 10-10 deadlock in the middle of the frame.  Once Southern Utah had the 11-10 advantage the team never looked back, building a lead of 22-16 and forcing a Golden Eagle timeout.  ORU was able to fight off the first match-point at 24-18, but Tess Lawrence recorded her seventh kill of the match to give the Thunderbirds the 25-19 victory.

Ma'afala and Pelaez led Southern Utah with 13 kills each with Pelaez also collecting 12 digs for the double-double.  Brittney Clark led the team with 35 assists, finding the middle most effective as Lawrence led the team hitting .600 with seven kills on ten attempts and only one error.

Southern Utah will play its home finale on Saturday night when the Thunderbirds host the Centenary Ladies at 7:00 p.m. in the Centrum Arena.