Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — Kendra Bodine was virtually unstoppable, and so were the Crusaders.

Bodine hammered down 20 kills on 31 swings, leading the way for Northwest Nazarene to a 25-20, 25-19, 25-14 sweep of Alaska in Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball Thursday night at the Johnson Sports Center.

"When she plays like that it's really hard to beat us," NNU head coach Doug English said.

While Bodine's 20-kill night was the highlight, but also just part of a fabulous team effort by the Crusaders, who shook up the lineup a bit and rose to the occasion with the sweep.
 

"We had a couple people out of positions and I thought both of them did a nice job," English said. "We made some errors early, but we were able to clean it up by the end of each set and in the third set we played really clean volleyball and it was really fun to be a part of."

The first set was a battle, tied 15-15 until a pair of Madi Farrell kills and another from Hailey Cook helped the Crusaders (12-4 overall, 5-4 GNAC) go on a 5-1 run to take control.

A pair of Bodine kills late helped NNU put away the first win and build some momentum on the way to the sweep.

In the second set, back-to-back Bodine kills capped an 8-3 surge by the Crusaders and put NNU on top, 16-11, and well in control once again.

Then, in the third and final set, NNU steamrolled to the win as three Bodine kills sandwiched around a Cami Heninger and Cook tandem block ignited a 15-4 run to the finish.

Cook finished with 36 assists in the win while Bodine had 10 digs, as did Mari Thomas and Shayli Siegfreid for NNU, which next faces a huge test when the Crusaders hosts GNAC front-runner and No. 8-ranked Alaska Anchorage on Saturday night at 7 p.m.  

"Hopefully we can rise to the challenge on Saturday 'cause it's going to be a really fun, exciting match," English said.