Box Score



NAMPA, Idaho — Saturday night, everyone had a hand in the Crusaders win.

Playing their fifth match in 10 days, the 23^rd-ranked Northwest Nazarene volleyball team used its entire bench in a 25-19, 25-20, 25-14 sweep of visiting Alaska in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match at the Johnson Sports Center on the NNU campus.
 

"It feels good," NNU volleyball head coach Doug English said. "Anytime we get a conference victory is great, and anytime we can play well at home and involved all of our team I think it's even better."

Elayna Rice led the way with 11 kills for the Crusaders, who got at least one kill each from 10 different players in the win.

Kendra Bodine — who had five kills — ignited a run that saw Michelle Terpstra and Madi Farrell add a kill each before a Bodine kill made it 8-4 early in the first set.

And the Crusaders kept building on the lead from there, going up 16-7 on a tandem block by Taylor VanValey and Andrea Terpstra en route to the first-set victory.

The second set was much the same as a Kaitlyn Tuholski service ace made it 12-7 in the Crusaders favor, a kill by Andi Terpstra pushed the lead to 17-11, and another kill by Terpstra finished off the set.

NNU (12-1 overall, 5-0 GNAC) started strong in the final set once again as a Rebecca TenHaken and Michelle Terpstra block made it 8-3, then the lead grew to 17-8 on a Jenna Caywood kill before a Hailey Cook kill finished off the sweep.

"All those girls work extremely hard in practice and they push everybody, so to be able to have a match where we can reward them for their work in practice is really nice," English said of playing 15 of the 16 players on NNU's roster.

Michelle Terpstra dished out 24 assists and made eight digs in the win for NNU, while Tuholski and Taylor Roberts each added eight digs, as well.

Next up for the Crusaders is a road trip to Simon Fraser on Thursday followed by Top 25-battle at No. 11 Western Washington on Saturday.