NAMPA, Idaho - Cammy Dranginis posted a season-best 19 kills as the Northwest Nazarene University Volleyball team defeated Central Washington University 25-19, 29-27, 23-25, 23-25, 15-11 on Thursday night in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match at the Johnson Sports Center.

 

Having won a season-best seven-straight, the Crusaders are now 15-7 overall and 9-4 in GNAC play.  The Wildcats (15-10, 7-6 GNAC) broke the NNU streak of 16 straight sets, a string that began against Western Washington on October 16th.

 

"While I wouldn't choose to go five, it was nice to see the growth of our players at crunch time making big plays," commented NNU head coach Jared Sliger.  The Crusaders had not gone five sets in a conference match since the last meeting with the Wildcats on October 4th in Ellensburg, a match won by Central Washington.

 

Dranginis led all players with 19 kills, seven blocks and had 44 swings without an error, hitting .432 for the match.  Lindsay Forseth added a double-double performance of 12 kills and 16 digs and Eki Punimata led the offense with a match-high 43 assists.

 

Rachael Schurman led the Wildcats with 18 kills, Kayla Roof added 15 and Emily Veenker had 14.  Brandie Vea led all defensive players with 25 digs.

 

Knotted at two games each, the Crusaders hit .269 in the final frame, holding CWU to a -.056 percentage and only two kills in the game.  Amanda Boschma led the NNU final game attack with three kills and Kailey Trautmann added a solo block.

 

"Erika Schaub and Kelsey Smith did a great job of bomb serving, which helped keep Central out of system," Sliger added.

 

The Crusaders will play their final home match of the season on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. when they host Seattle Pacific University as part of the 2008 Homecoming festivities on the NNU campus.  NNU will close out the season next weekend on the road, traveling the league-leading Western Oregon on Thursday and Saint Martin's University on Saturday.

 

Short Box Score (5th game only)
                            The Automated ScoreBook
     Central Washington vs Northwest Nazarene (Nov 06, 2008 at Nampa,Idaho)

  Northwest Nazarene def. Central Washington 0-0,0-0,0-0,0-0,15-11

  Central Washington (7-6 GNAC, 15-10) (Kills-aces-blocks) -
  Schurman,Rachael 1-0-1; Buck,Whitney 1-0-0; Norris,Erin 0-0-1;
  Roof,Kayla 0-0-1; Zamora,Morgan 0-0-1; Totals 2-0-2.0. (Assists) - .
  (Dig leaders) - Roof,Kayla 3; Vea,Brandie 3

  Northwest Nazarene (9-4 GNAC, 15-7) (Kills-aces-blocks) -
  Boschma,Amanda 3-0-0; Dranginis,Cammy 2-0-0; Punimata,Eki 2-0-0;
  Trautmann,Kailey 2-0-1; Forseth,Lindsay 1-0-0; Smith,Kelsey 0-1-0;
  Totals 10-1-1.0. (Assists) - . (Dig leaders) - Forseth,Lindsay 4;
  Smith,Kelsey 2

  Site: Nampa,Idaho (Johnson Sports Ctr)
  Date: Nov 06, 2008   Attend: 467   Time: 2.25hrs
  Referees: Conrad Johnston, Robby Reno