NAMPA — Northwest Nazarene volleyball coach Jared Sliger could have reached for a variety of clichés, but a reference to the movie “Spinal Tap” fittingly summed up a frustrating weekend.

“They go, 'Our amps go up to 11,' and that's what this is for me, it's an 11,” Sliger said of his frustration on a scale of 1 to 10 after his Crusaders lost 20-25, 25-19, 19-25, 25-17, 15-11 to No. 5-ranked Western Washington.

“When you have all the opportunities sitting right there in front of you ... and you can't get 'em back, it's not like we can bring these guys back and play them again. We have to capitalize.”

The Great Northwest Athletic Conference leading Vikings escaped Nampa with a win similar to Thursday's 5-set victory by Western Oregon, the GNAC's second-place team. WWU fell behind 2-1 then toppled a Crusader squad that played almost like they didn't expect to win.

“We're just so close every time and we just can't seem to push those couple extra points to win the match,” NNU junior outside hitter Lindsay Forseth said.

“We just haven't experienced it enough,” added Sliger, “and as a team that's been to the top of the hill and knows how to do it, (the Vikings) just have an expectation we haven't fostered yet in our girls.”

That expectation to win helped the Vikings (11-0, 3-0 GNAC) jump up 24-14 on an Angie Alvord ace in the fourth set and cruise to an easy win, prolonging the match.

NNU (7-5, 1-3) responded well, see-sawing with WWU in the fifth set and taking an 8-7 edge on an Amanda Boschma kill.

Then ....“We're up 8-7 and it just seems like we shoot ourselves in the foot and just can't seem to finish the game, which needs to happen for us to be successful,” Forseth said.

A Tiana Roma kill, a Megan Amundson tip over the NNU block, then a Alvord kill put Western Washington up 10-8, and gave the Vikes just enough breathing room to escape unscathed. Amundson and Alvord led the Vikes with 23 kills each.

It was frustrating, as the Crusaders proved Western Washington's equal, going up 22-14 in the opener on a Boschma kill and coasting to that win, then forging a 16-10 lead on back-to-back Forseth blasts in the third set en rout to a 2-1 edge in the match.

NNU just failed to make all the hard work pay off.

“Big deal if we're close twice, it's still an 'L,' it doesn't matter if you lose in five or you lose in three,” Sliger said. “If you can't finish it's still a loss, and I feel bad for 'em because they played great for 2 1/2 games.”

Forseth led NNU with 16 kills and 12 digs, while Cammy Dranginis added 17 kills, Eki Punimata 51 assists, Haley Hevern 21 digs and Kailey Trautman 20 digs.