Box Score

NAMPA, Idaho — The reigning GNAC champs finally got to put on a show for their fans.

After a month-long, 10-game road trip to open the season, the Northwest Nazarene volleyball team played in front of nearly 600 enthusiastic fans at the Johnson Sports Center on Thursday night, and didn't disappoint a single one.

The 2014 Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion Crusaders settled in after a battle of a first set and rolled to a 28-26, 25-19, 25-16 win over Simon Fraser.

"It was so fun to be home and play in front of a great crowd," said NNU head volleyball coach Doug English, whose team plays a second straight match at home Saturday when the Crusaders host 15^th-ranked Western Washington at 7 p.m.

But the focus for English's team was on taking care of business against the Clan, first, which NNU did after a seesaw battle in the opening set.

Both teams racked up plenty of miscues in the opener, but it was the Crusaders efficiency late that ended up deciding the set.

First, an Elayna Rice kill helped stave off a set point for SFU (6-5 overall, 2-1 GNAC), tying the score at 25-25.

Then back-to-back kills from Taylor VanValey and Rice finished off the opener and gave the Crusaders (5-6, 2-1) the early lead in the match.

From there, NNU clicked as a solo VanValey block and tandem blocks from VanValey and Madi Farrell, then Farrell and Rice, highlighted a decisive 11-3 run in the second set for the Crusaders.

"We have spent time on blocking and defense over the past couple of weeks and I thought that we did a good job tonight in that area," said English, as NNU scored 10 points in the match on blocks.

And NNU's defense played a key role, too, keeping rallies alive and forcing miscue after miscue by the Clan, which had 31 attack errors in the loss.

The Crusaders, conversely, had three in each the second and third sets, fueling the sweep. 

"We knew coming in that they were going to dig a ton of balls and they did," said English, whose team was out-dug 65 to 53, "but our hitters worked hard in transition and did a good job scoring points."

Evidenced by kills from Farrell, Rice and Kendra Bodine in a 4-1 surge in the middle of the third set that allowed the Crusaders to stretch a 14-12 lead to an 18-13 advantage, and cruise to the sweep from there.

Bodine led the way for NNU's offense with 10 kills in the win, while Rice added nine kills and 12 digs, Linnea Phillips chipped in 13 digs for the Crusaders, and Hailey Cook dished out 29 assists.