ROHNERT PARK, Calif. - Defeating both Humboldt State and CSU Stanislaus on Saturday afternoon, the Northwest Nazarene University volleyball team claimed the Seawolf Spike Volleyball Tournament title, going 4-0 in the classic formatted event hosted by Sonoma State University.

Cruising past Humboldt State (30-27, 30-14, 30-12) this morning and then CSU Stanislaus (30-19, 30-7, 30-16) in the afternoon, the Crusaders start the 2007 season 4-0 for the first time since 2001 after having upset AVCA/CSTV preseason nationally-ranked #13 Chico State in five games (30-24, 30-26, 29-31, 24-30, 15-5) and the host Seawolves of Sonoma State (30-27, 22-30, 28-30, 30-28, 15-5) in a pair of five-game matches yesterday.

"It was nice to square off against someone wearing different colors," commented NNU head coach Jared Sliger on his team's opening matches of 2007. "We were very balanced all weekend, and again this afternoon we had four people that reached double digits in kills. Having a game like we did in game
two (30-7 over CSUS) is a real confidence builder for what we are trying to achieve."

Cammy Dranginis led the Crusaders all weekend, posting 16 kills against Chico State and finishing the weekend with 62 kills and an impressive .418 hitting percentage, to go along with 21 total blocks. Allison James set the offense, handing out 164 assists over the four matches and leading the defense with 55 digs.

"Ali James did a good job picking her spots today to get us kills," Sliger added. "Yesterday her senior leadership made the difference in both of the matches, especially in the fifth games."

Against Chico State the Crusaders got up by two games with 30-24 and 30-26 wins. Trailing 26-28 late in game three, Chico State, 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).

In the win over Sonoma State, Dranginis set the pace 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.

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.

NNU edged Humboldt State by just three points in the first game before cruising to comfortable wins in the second and third. In fact, their 16 and 18 points victories were the two largest margins in the tournament thus far.

James hit at a .421 clip (8-0-19) as Northwest Nazarene outhit Humboldt .303 to .091 in its win. Dranginis led the Crusaders with 14 kills and five blocks, while Chelsea Pelton had 12 kills. Pelton hit .455 and Dranginis had a .429 percentage. James had 35 assists, eight kills and 20 digs in the victory.

In the final match against CSU Stanislaus the Crusaders turned in their most impressive performance of the young season, opening with a 30-19 win and then crushing the Warriors 30-7 in the second game that included an 18 kill, no error performance as NNU hit .692 for the game. NNU closed out the match with a 30-16 win in game three.

The Crusaders will face CSU Stanislaus again on Thursday as both teams travel to Hawaii to play in the Hawaii D.II Invitational. In addition to the Warriors, NNU will play #4 UC San Diego, BYU Hawaii and Chaminade in the tournament.