Box Score

ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Madi Farrell hammered away early, setting the tone for the Crusaders.

A match-opening kill. A kill for a 13-6 lead. One more for a 16-7 advantage.

The rest of the Northwest Nazarene volleyball team followed suit, pounding down balls all night for a 25-23, 25-19, 25-22 sweep of host Central Washington in Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball Tuesday night.

"We played really well and steady all night," NNU head coach Doug English said.

"Hailey (Cook) did a great job getting the right people the ball at the right time," NNU's coach added as Cook finished with 49 assists in the straight-set victory. "And we served great, which allowed us to dig a ton of balls."

Shayli Siegfreid led the Crusader defense with a match-high 24 digs, while Mari Thomas and Kendra Bodine also added 14 digs each, and Jacquelyn Johnson had 10 digs for NNU (13-5 overall, 6-5 GNAC).

That helped propel NNU, which weathered a few tense moments but never let the Wildcats (11-87-4) into the match.

In the opening set, the Wildcats tied the score, 22-22, but back-to- back kills from Thomas and Bodine helped NNU hold on, scoring the opening victory on another Bodine kill.

In the second set, a Farrell kill followed by a tandem block from Farrell and Thomas sparked a 6-0 Crusader run that stretched a tenuous 15-14 lead to a commanding 21-14 margin, en route to the second-set win.

And in the final set, NNU had to weather threat after threat from the host team, which cut a 17-13 deficit down to a single point five times before a Thomas kill gave the Crusaders a bit of breathing room, up 23-20.

A final Farrell kill finished off the sweep.

Farrell finished with a match-high 13 kills for a balanced NNU attack that got 12 kills from Bodine and 11 from Thomas.

The win starts a four-game road-trip with positive momentum for the Crusaders, who next play at Montana State Billings on Saturday.