NAMPA, Idaho – The Crusaders won one for Caity on Thursday night.

The Northwest Nazarene volleyball team continued its march toward the national tournament and celebrated Senior Night for team manager Caity Pilgeram by battling past Western Oregon 29-27, 17-25, 25-12, 25-18 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match at the Johnson Sports Center.

"It's really nice," NNU coach Doug English said of the victory, "and I feel like more of a relief because they're a really good, scrappy team. You saw how many digs they had."

The Wolves came up with 83 digs in the match and added seven points off blocks, making the Crusaders work hard to put balls away all night long.

That factor came into play early on, as the Crusaders (17-6 overall, 13-4 GNAC) grabbed a 24-20 lead in the opening set, but then had to fight to finish the win as the Wolves battled back and earned a set point themselves on an NNU hitting error, taking a 25-24 lead.

A kill by Taylor VanValey prevented the Wolves from grabbing the opening win, and NNU battled back with three late kills from Andrea Terpstra to take the early lead in the match.

But the Wolves (10-17, 7-10) scrappy play helped them even the match with the second-set win before NNU finally settled into a rhythm.

The Crusaders pounded down 33 kills and had just five errors in the final two sets, an offensive effort set up by solid defense.          

"We passed better is what it was," English said.

"Taylor Roberts did a nice job figuring out where, or who, she thought Western Oregon was going to serve and then trying to take a lot more balls. She got us into our system and allowed us to set balls fast to the ends and get balls pass their blockers."

Elayna Rice and Andrea Terpstra took advantage, hammering away and finishing with 20 and 19 kills, respectively, in the win.

A Rice kill put NNU well in control, up 13-4 in the third set, and another kill by Rice finished off the set.

A WOU service error then snapped a 13-13 tie in the fourth set before a Linnea Phillips ace gave NNU a 15-13 lead, and the Crusaders never let the advantage slip away, notching the four-set win.

A win that keeps the Crusaders on track for a possible berth to the NCAA Division II Volleyball National Tournament, as the top 8 teams in the West Region earn berths to nationals.

NNU is currently ranked No. 8 in the West Region with only Saturday night's home match at 7:30 p.m. against St. Martin's remaining on the schedule.

And, the win was a celebration for the Crusaders lone senior, Pilgeram.

"She just said that's the first Senior Night she's won so I'm glad we could do that for her," English said. "Caity does so much for our program and doesn't get enough recognition for it, so any recognition we can give her for the work she does, I am glad to do it."

Michelle Terpstra added in 46 assists and 23 digs in the win for NNU, while Roberts made 20 digs and Kaitlyn Tuholski added 17 digs.

Cherene O'Hara led the Wolves with 10 kills, Jordin Ramos had 21 assists and Megan Triggs made 25 digs for Western Oregon.