ROHNERT PARK, Calif.- The Northwest Nazarene volleyball team turned in the first true upset of the 2007 Seawolf Spike Volleyball Tournament on Friday as they held off a hard charging No. 13 Chico State squad for a 3-2 win.

"It was nice to square off against someone wearing a different color," commented NNU head coach Jared Sliger on his team's opening match of 2007. "It was good to see Loni (Evenson) adjusting to her new position and I thought we blocked well as a team, even though the stats don't show a tremendous block total."

The Crusaders (1-0) got up by two games with 30-24 and 30-26 wins. Trailing 26-28 late in game three, Chico State (0-1), aided by a missed serve and a hitting error by the Crusaders, edged NNU 31-29 before taking a 30-24 win in the fourth game to set up an all-or-nothing race to 15.

Despite the momentum being in Chico's court, the Crusaders proved they had enough left in the tank to pull away 15-6 in the fifth. NNU had nine kills with no hitting errors

Chico State, ranked 13th in the AVCA Division II Preseason Top 25 poll, had a sizable advantage in kills (79-63), but they were done in by 38 hitting errors, more than twice what NNU had (17).

Leading the way for the Crusaders was Cammy Dranginis, who led a balanced attack hitting .361 with 16 kills. Allison James had 48 assists and Loni Evenson posted 18 digs to go along with her 14 kills. Lindsay Forseth had 15 kills and the Crusaders out-blocked the Wildcats 9-3.

Lindsay Macias led all players with 29 kills and Erica Brick recorded 66 assists in a losing effort for the Wildcats.

NNU takes on host Sonoma State tonight at 7:00 pm.

The Crusaders have now beaten two straight top-25 ranked teams having closed the 2006 campaign with a victory over then 22nd ranked Central Washington in Nampa.