Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

ELLENSBURG, Wash. — The final day's tune-up for the defending Great Northwest Athletic Conference champions went well, despite mixed results.

The Northwest Nazarene volleyball team prepped for its league opener on Monday by steam-rolling over Fresno Pacific, 25-12, 25-13, 25-18, on Saturday afternoon before stumbling, 25-13, 25-20, 25-18, against Point Loma to close out play Saturday evening at the Pac West/GNAC Crossover Tournament hosted by Central Washington.

The split wrapped up a 2-2 effort in the tournament by the Crusaders who concluded pre-conference play and now open their title defense at Central Washington on Monday night.

"On our side of the net we did some good things today," said NNU head volleyball coach Doug English, whose team is 3-5. "Our hitters cut back their errors from (Friday). We also had a better court demeanor than we have had in the past. We trusted our system and stuck to what we do and kept trying to chip away, even though we came up short."

To start the day, it was the Sunbirds who came up short against a hot Crusader squad which bounced back from a four-set loss Friday in dominating fashion.

Taylor VanValey led a potent attack with 11 kills while Elayna Rice added eight kills and seven blocks.

Linnea Phillips had a stellar defensive match with 20 digs and Hailey Cook set it all up with 32 assists.

A VanValey kill and a tandem block by VanValey and Jenna Caywood broke open the first set as NNU went on a 14-3 run to take an early lead.

A Rice and Caywood tandem block in the second set put the Crusaders up 7-0 as they rolled to a two set lead, and a kill each from VanValey and Madi Farrell sparked an 8-1 push by NNU to erase an early third-set deficit en route to the sweep.

But against the Sea Lions, NNU found itself in an 11-0 hole in the first set, forcing the Crusaders to chip away.

A Kendra Bodine kill got NNU as close as 15-7 down, but the Crusaders never got closer in the opening set.

The second set proved much closer as a Rice kill gave the Crusaders a 16-15 lead before Point Loma used an 8-2 surge to take control.

"Point Loma played great against us," English said, "we did not figure out how to slow their offense down."

The Sea Lions offense continued to click in the final set, and after a Bodine kill put NNU on top, 11-8, the Point Loma offense rallied with a 10-2 run that helped it complete the sweep.

Bodine led the NNU offense with nine kills in the second match while Rice had eight kills and nine digs.

Phillips led the defense with 10 digs and Cook dished out 28 assists for the Crusaders.