NAMPA — The crowd was into it, and at times, the Crusaders too.

Unfortunately, the Northwest Nazarene volleyball team couldn't put away Western Oregon, letting the Wolves slip away with a 26-28, 25-20, 19-25, 25-21, 15-11 win in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play in the home opener for NNU.

“We have no toes left on our feet because we shot ourselves in the foot repeatedly,” NNU coach Jared Sliger said of hitting errors by his team. “Against a team that's as efficient as they are ... you can't let them off the hook with your errors.”

NNU (7-4, 1-2 GNAC) actually had fewer hitting errors than the Wolves (9-1, 2-0) — 23 to 25 — but a trio of hitting errors in the fourth set proved costly after the Crusaders appeared to have won the matches momentum.

Tied 1-1, Western Oregon took a 16-14 edge in the third set on a Stephanie Beeler kill off the block when NNU fifth-year senior Amanda Boschma stepped up.

The Kuna High product pushed a kill deep to stop a mini Western run, then hammered down a kill for the Crusaders to tie the set 16-16.

A huge spark, as NNU cruised to the win from there.

“I thought that was one of the plays that we were going to look back at and say that settled everything down and we were able to right the ship and take it on home,” Sliger said. “Then game four happened.”

With a chance to close out the Wolves — who are lurking just outside the Top 25 at the 30 spot — hitting errors by Cammy Dranginis, Boschma and Kailey Trautman sparked the Wolves during a 10-1 run that turned a 4-3 deficit into a 13-5 lead following a Lisa Martini kill of an overpass.

“We had all the momentum and then it's like somebody just popped the balloon,” NNU's coach said. “And if front of this great crowd (of nearly 500). You have a great atmosphere and you're tentative, you're flat. People are looking around, our body language and our facial expressions were bad, and I was like, 'Do you guys realize you're doing a good thing? You're ahead, right?' “Yeah, it's disappointing, but we're still real young.”

NNU battles back, tying the fourth set 20-20 on a Kayla Mainer hitting error, but the Wolves inched away late to even the match.

Western Oregon then jumped up 7-3 in the fifth set after a Martini kill and two from Mainer, then held on late to complete a crucial road win.

“Those games are so short and they're so emotion packed, just having that little cushion maybe makes you relax just a little more than the other team and I thought down the stretch, Northwest Nazarene was just a little tight and they were trying maybe a little bit too hard,” said Western Oregon coach Brad Saindon, whose was led by Stacey Bennett with 23 kills and 19 digs.

Dranginis led NNU with 17 kills, while Lindsay Forseth added 14 kills and 20 digs and Amanda Boschma had 14 kills and 10 digs.