Box Score

BILLINGS, Mont. — Kendra Bodine hammered away all match long, no doubt much to the delight of her teammates.

Bodine pounded down 19 kills on 31 swings, leading the way for Northwest Nazarene as the Crusaders notched their first Great Northwest Athletic Conference win of the season, a 25-14, 25-22, 25-17 victory at Montana State Billings on Saturday to wrap up a 10-match road trip to start the season.

"We played a very consistent match, one of the better ones this year," said NNU head volleyball coach Doug English. "Our outsides (Bodine, Elayna Rice and Taylor VanValey) hit great and Hailey (Cook) put them in a great place to succeed.

"It feels good to get our first GNAC win of the year," added English.
 

While Bodine hammered away, so did teammates Rice and VanValey who had 10 and seven kills, respectively, in the victory for the defending GNAC champions.

The Crusaders (4-6 overall, 1-1 GNAC) now return home and will play at the Johnson Sports Center for the first time this year when they host Simon Fraser on Thursday at 7 p.m.

But before they could get to a home match, NNU needed to finish its 10-match road-trip strong, and the Crusader outside hitters set the tone.

Down 5-3 early, a VanValey kill sparked an 11-3 surge in the first set, a run capped by a Bodine kill for a 14-8 NNU lead, as the Crusaders rolled to a quick one-set advantage in the match.

The Crusaders found themselves in comeback mode once again in the second set, this time trailing 21-18 before kills from setter, Cook, and Bodine sparked a 7-1 finish run, a charge capped by back-to-back VanValey kills for a two set to none lead.

And one more time in the third and final set NNU trailed, down 14-12, when a VanValey kill ignited the charge.

Three straight Bodine kills stretched a 19-16 lead for NNU to 22-16 before a Jenna Caywood kill finished off the win for the Crusaders, who got 39 assists from Cook and 12 digs from libero Linnea Phillips.