NAMPA, Idaho – The Crusaders made their case on the court Saturday night.

After slipping in the West Region poll this week, the Northwest Nazarene volleyball team got its chance to potential climb in those rankings, hosting Central Washington in a crucial battle for playoff positioning.

After shaking off some big-match nerves early, the Crusaders took care of everything within their control, rolling to a 12-25, 25-21, 26-24, 25-21 win over the Wildcats in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play at the Johnson Sports Center.

"It feels great," NNU coach Doug English said, "it's a huge relief for us. The kids have worked hard all week and it was – all the things that we said that we thought we were better than them, it's nice we came out on the court and showed we were better."

The Wildcats beat NNU in three sets earlier this season, which might have led to Central Washington climbing from No. 7 to 6 in the West Region poll this week, despite a loss at Montana State Billings.

The Crusaders (16-6 overall, 12-4 GNAC), who checked in at No. 8 in the first regional poll, won two matches but slid from No. 8 to 10 in the poll.

In the opening set, the Wildcats (13-11, 9-7) looked like a top-ranked team as they got kills from Kaitlin Quick and Linden Firethorne to spark an 8-2 run that stretched a 12-9 lead to 20-11, effectively icing the first-set victory.

"They played really well in set one," English said. "They passed great and sided-out great, and when teams play that well you're not going to beat them."

But, the Crusaders would not be beat in the next three sets as an Elayna Rice kill snapped a 15-15 tie in the second set and sent the Crusaders on a 4-0 run. Jenna Caywood and Rice add a tandem block and Kathryn Burgeson serve up an ace in the surge that put the Crusaders in front, 19-15.

NNU never let the Wildcats get too close from there, finishing off the win on an Andrea Terpstra kill.

The Crusaders then won a decisive third set with a refuse-to-lose attitude late, erasing a 23-20 deficit and a set-point for Central Washington.

NNU's Taylor VanValey evened the set, 24-24, with a kill, then a tandem block by Andrea Terpstra and VanValey finished off the win.

With the lead, NNU didn't waste the chance to put the match away as another VanValey and Andrea Terpstra tandem block put NNU up 12-7 early in the fourth set, and the lead never slipped away. An Andrea Terpstra kill finished off the four-set victory.

"We set Andrea and Elayna a lot of balls and let them do what they do, which is kill a lot of balls," English said of the change in NNU's game after the opening set. "And we passed well enough to get them a lot of sets and they did a great job of putting balls away."

Both enjoyed a big match for the Crusaders as Andrea Terpstra had 20 kills and seven blocks and Rice added 16 kills, 13 digs and four blocks.

Michelle Terpstra added 48 assists and 11 digs in the win while Taylor Roberts had 19 digs and Taylor Gould added 10 digs for NNU, which closes out the regular season hosting Western Oregon and St. Martin's on Thursday and Saturday.

As for the polls?

"I think we're one of the best eight teams in the region and I think it would be nice if the polls agreed with that and showed that also," English said, "but if it doesn't, we still have one more week of work to do."