Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — The Crusaders made it look easy Saturday night, rolling to a third-straight win in straight sets in front of a vocal flannel-clad crowd at the Johnson Sports Center.

Mari Thomas had 12 kills and Madi Farrell added 11 for Northwest Nazarene, which closed out a four-match home-stand with a 25-22, 25-18, 25-22 victory over Saint Martin's in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.

"Any time we can win a volleyball game in the GNAC it's great," NNU head coach Doug English said. "We had a great crowd tonight, that was awesome; it definitely helped us get some momentum going."
 

A vocal Crusader student section on "Flannel Night" cheered their team on to victory with some late rallies, starting in the first set.

Kills by Thomas and Cami Heninger sandwiched around a Shayli Siegfreid ace stretched a slim 20-19 NNU lead into a commanding advantage on route the opening win, capped by one of Farrell's kills.

In the second set, with the score knotted at 16-16, a Thomas kill ignited a 6-1 run capped by two more Thomas kills, and the Crusaders (11-2 overall, 4-2 GNAC) cruised to the two-set-to-none lead.

NNU then closed out the match with a final late surge as two Thomas kills, a Farrell kill and a Farrell solo block put the Crusaders up 23-20 on route to the sweep.

Hailey Cook dished out 42 assists in the victory and Siegfreid added 12 digs for the Crusader who hit the road with momentum as they face second-place Simon on Friday then Western Washington, who is tied with NNU, on Saturday.

It's the start of a five-match stretch against four of the top teams in the GNAC.

"We're excited to hit the road and play the quality of volleyball we're going to play," English said. "We know the next five matches are going to probably be the toughest five matches we're going to play all year."