NAMPA, Idaho – The Crusaders closed their regular season with a bang.

Now they wait and see if there will be more matches to play.

The Northwest Nazarene volleyball team did all it could itself to earn a berth to the NCAA Division II National Tournament by rolling past St. Martin's 25-19, 25-23, 25-16 on Saturday night in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play at the Johnson Sports Center.

"It was nice that we got three pretty good volleyball sets in," said NNU coach Doug English, whose team saw the start of its match delayed by a trio of basketball games played during the day at the JSC. "It was nice that we came out and played well and executed and were able to win in three."

The Crusaders (18-6 overall, 14-4 GNAC) swept the match with impressive hitting prowess, committing just 11 errors on the night.

"I thought we passed great and we were able to get Andrea (Terpstra) and Jenna(Caywood) a lot of balls," English said. "And we matched up really well with what they were doing blocking-wise.

"We just played really good, clean volleyball."

Good, clean volleyball helped NNU turn around the opening set, as the Saints (7-23, 3-15) forged the early lead.

Down 12-11 in the opener, an Elayna Rice kill followed by back-to-back Taylor Gould service aces sent NNU on its way to an early one set to none lead.

The second set proved to be much more of a battle as a Brooke Good kill tied it, 19-19, and a kill from Kristyn Ross evened the score, 23-23 for SMU.

But at crunch time the Crusaders came through, as Rice set up NNU's setter, Michelle Terpstra, for a kill, then Michelle set her sister Andrea Terpstra for the final point of the set, and a 2-0 lead in the match.

The third set was close early, with the Saints forging a 12-9 lead on a Julia Wabinga kill before the Crusaders took control, taking a 14-13 lead on an Andrea Terpstra kill before pulling away to complete the sweep.

Rice finished the night with 17 kills and Andrea Terpstra added 10 kills for the Crusaders, who also got 41 assists from Michelle Terpstra.

Kaitlyn Tuholski led the defense with 15 digs while Taylor Roberts added 11 digs and Taylor Gould had 10 in the win.

Now the question is will the Crusaders earn the program's second-ever berth to the NCAA tournament?

Ranked No. 8 in this week's West Region poll, NNU did all it could, winning both its matches to close out the regular season this weekend.

The top 8 in the West Region poll earn berths to nationals. The final poll will be announced Monday at 5:30 p.m. during the NCAA Division II National Tournament Selection Show online at www.ncaa.org.

"I hope we make it," English said.

Making nationals for the first time since 2007 has been a focus for the Crusaders the last three weeks, every since the first West Region poll of the fall came out and had NNU ranked No. 8.

"I think it was on their minds, and I hope it was on their minds," English said of his team's focus on making nationals.
NNU ran off five straight wins during that time.

"We knew we had to win our last five matches even to have a chance and they stepped up to that challenge."

Now, with everything done on the court, it's just wait and see time for the Crusaders.