ROHNERT PARK, Calif.- After opening the season with an upset of #13 Chico State this afternoon, the Northwest Nazarene volleyball team completed the day with a five-game 30-27, 22-30, 28-30, 30-28, 15-5 victory over Sonoma State University at the Seawolf Spike Invitational.

The Crusaders (2-0) are the only unbeaten team in the tournament after the opening day and picked up two valuable NCAA Division II Pacific Region victories. The Crusaders will play twice tomorrow, facing Humboldt State at 9 a.m. and CSU Stanislaus at 2 p.m.

"It's always hard to get the team ready for the match after a big win, but tonight we played just well enough to get past Sonoma State," NNU head coach Jared Sliger commented. "Ali (James) had a tremendous match tonight and her senior leadership in both fifth games today was the difference."

In the win over Sonoma State (0-2), Cammy Dranginis led the balanced Crusaders with 16 kills and four blocks, Chelsea Pelton and Loni Evenson each had 14 kills and Lindsay Forseth added 10 as NNU hit .221 for the match and out-blocked the Seawolves eight to five.

Marianne Fox paced SSU with a match-high 29 kills but the NNU defense held the hosts to a .165 hitting percentage as a team.

As they did earlier in the day against Chico State, the Crusaders elevated their game in the final tilt, this time hitting .550 in game five with 12 kills and just one hitting error in 20 attempts.

SSU's Lindsay Brown handed out a match-high 54 assists while NNU's James had 45 assists, nine kills, 18 digs and hit .333 with just one hitting error on the night.