NAMPA, Idaho - Senior Haley Abbott led the Crusaders with 13 kills but it wasn't quite enough as the Northwest Nazarene volleyball team fell to Western Washington University in four sets 22-25, 25-19, 18-25, 12-25 in the final Great Northwest Athletic Conference match of the season for both teams.

The Crusaders conclude the 2011 campaign 17-8 overall and 12-6 in GNAC play while Western Washington ends the season 16-6 overall and 14-4 in league matches.  The NNU program honored the five Crusaders (Abbott, Kailey Trautmann, Brianna Claassen, Laticia Lehman and Reisa Fessler) prior to the beginning of the match.

While Abbott led the offense for the Crusaders, fellow senior Trautmann finished with 15 digs, increasing her career total to 668 and ends her career ranked 9th all-time in the rally scoring recordbook.  Trautmann hustled for 430 digs this season which will find her ranked 3rd all-time in the rally scoring single-season records.

Emily Jepsen, the 2010 GNAC Player-of-the-Year and one of the Vikings seniors, ends her career with a match-high 19 digs to lead WWU.  Kelsey Moore and Marlayna Geary also reached double-figures with 16 and 13 kills, respectively.  Laurie Yearout led all setters with 50 assists and Samantha Hutchinson paced the defenders with a match-best 28 digs.

WWU hit .245 in the match, held the Crusaders to a .142 clip and out-blocked the hosts 15-10.

With Western Oregon's defeat of West Region #8 Alaska Anchorage in Monmouth tonight, Seattle Pacific claims the GNAC title and the automatic bid into the NCAA West Regional after defeating MSU Billings on the road.  With tonight's results the GNAC could find itself with only one team in the regional tournament.  Selection for the championships will be released tomorrow night.

The Crusaders, who were picked to finish 6th in the pre-season coaches poll, finish the year one step better in 5th place in the conference.  The coaches poll was very close to the actual finish, with just NNU and Central Washington (6th place) switching places to match the top-seven place teams predicted finishes.  Here's a look back at the pre-season poll compared to the actual finish...

GNAC Final Standings (Pre-season poll / Actual Finish)

Seattle Pacific (1/1)

Western Washington (2/T2)

Alaska Anchorage (3/T2)

Western Oregon (4/4)

Northwest Nazarene (6/5)

Central Washington (5/6)

MSU Billings (7/7)

Saint Martin's (10/8)

Alaska Fairbanks (8/9)

Simon Fraser (9/10)