Box Score



NAMPA, Idaho — A so begins a new win streak.

The 18^th ranked-Northwest Nazarene volleyball team bounced back from its first loss in a month with a near perfect performance Thursday night, rolling past Seattle Pacific 25-15, 25-19, 25-12 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action at the Johnson Sports Center on the NNU campus.
 

"We executed probably flawlessly serving-wise what we wanted to do and we passed perfectly — or very good," said NNU head volleyball coach Doug English. "If we do those things well, and serve the right people and get them out of system, it makes it easier on us and our blockers."

The Crusaders (14-2 overall, 7-1 GNAC) matched the best serving team in the league in aces — two each for NNU and SPU — then recorded nine points on blocks in the win.

Just part of the efficient night, as NNU also pounded down 46 kills — much to the delight of nearly 600 fans who received a free gift from Crusader athletic sponsor Stinker Stores for recording more than 45 kills — and had just 11 hitting errors in the match.

"If we're passing well, our offense is going to run well like it did tonight," English said.

The offense was clicking right from the start as kills by Kendra Bodine, Andrea Terpstra and Elayna Rice were followed by a tandem block by Michelle and Andrea Terpstra, and NNU held 7-1 lead in the blink of an eye.

NNU went up as much as 20-10 on a Bodine kill and finished off the quick first-set win with a tandem block by Taylor VanValey and Rebecca TenHaken, setting the tone for the evening.
 

The second set was more competitive until the Crusaders seemingly flipped a switch on their offense and took off, using a 10-0 run to erase an 18-14 deficit and set up a set point.

Andrea Terpstra led the charge with a trio of kills while Rice and Michelle Terpstra each added two more kills in the surge that led to a two set to none lead for the Crusaders.

The third set was more of the same as NNU stormed out to a 12-4 lead with a 10-2 surge capped by back-to-back VanValey kills, and never looked back, closing out the sweep on a solo block by Madi Farrell.

Bodine and Rice led the Crusaders' prolific offense with 11 kills each while Andrea Terpstra added 10 kills.

Michelle Terpstra set it all up with 34 assists while Taylor Roberts led the defense with 15 digs, Linnea Phillips added 13 digs and Rice had 12 digs for NNU, which hosts Montana State Billings on Saturday night in the second match of a four-match, two week home-stand.