Box Score

FAIRBANKS, Alaska – There was not letdown for the Crusaders on Saturday afternoon.

Coming off a huge upset win at Alaska Anchorage, the Northwest Nazarene volleyball team completed a sweep in Alaska by beating Alaska Fairbanks 25-20, 25-14, 25-20 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.

"Overall our focus and intensity was great for the match," said NNU coach Doug English, whose team was riding high after handing UAA its first league loss of the season in four sets on Thursday. "Hopefully we can carry it over to next week."

Next week, when the Crusaders return home to host Simon Fraser on Thursday, then No. 8-ranked Western Washington on Saturday.

NNU didn't overlook or underestimate the Nanooks (3-19 overall, 2-9 GNAC) on Saturday, though, rallying from a small first-set deficit with a 10-0 run to take a 14-7 lead.

A pair of Elayna Rice kills and three service aces by Taylor Gould powered the surge.

The Crusaders (12-5, 8-3) cruised from there, winning the first set and routing the Nanooks in the second set.

UAF managed to keep the third set a bit closer, and even tied the score 16-16, but a Rice kill snapped the tie and helped send the Crusaders to the sweep.

Rice finished with a phenomenal match, recording 11 kills in 19 attacks without a hitting error, part of a near-perfect match by all the Crusaders.

NNU finished with 36 kills and just four hitting errors in 74 attack attempts for a .432 hitting percentage.

"Not making errors is something we've been stressing the last two or three weeks," English said.

Michelle Terpstra added 24 assists and six digs in the win for NNU, while Kaitlyn Tuholski added five kills and six digs and Linnea Phillips had six digs for the Crusaders.