Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — Now it's wait and see time.

The Northwest Nazarene volleyball team did all it could to ensure itself a spot in the NCAA National Tournament, closing out the regular season with a sweep at home Saturday afternoon, besting Western Oregon 25-18, 25-23, 25-22 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play for its 20^th win on the season.

A mark that the Crusaders hope is enough to propel them to the program's third NCAA tournament berth.
 

"We're happy to win any game we can win in the GNAC, they're all tough games," NNU head coach Doug English said.

With the victory, NNU finishes fourth in the GNAC with a 20-7 overall record and a 13-7 league mark.

The Crusaders also went a perfect 7-0 in nonconference play, and combined with their 20 wins this season, it all has NNU poised for the postseason as the NCAA West Region poll had the Crusaders ranked No. 6 prior to two wins this week.

The top eight teams in the West Region poll at the end of tonight's action will receive bids to nationals. The NCAA tournament field will be announced online on Monday at 5:30 p.m. (Mountain Time) at NCAA.com.

"The fact we want to be playing the best volleyball we can at the end of the year and we played two good teams and beat two good teams, we're excited about that," Coach English said of his team's finish to the regular season.

"To be playing well heading into what we hope is going to be a couple more weeks of volleyball, it's good to be there."

NNU cruised led by an efficient defense that racked up 55 digs, led by Shayli Siegfreid with 14 and Mari Thomas with 13. That, and four blocks each from Hailey Cook and Madi Farrell, helped derail the Wolves.
 

"I though our defense was really good tonight, our defense and blocking," NNU's coach said. "I felt like we dug a lot of balls and Western Oregon struggled on offense because of that."

NNU's offense took advantage as a Cami Heninger kill made it 8-4 early, and a Thomas kill put the Crusaders in front 14-5 en route to an easy first-set victory.

The Wolves (10-17, 7-13) made things tough in the second set as a tandem block by Paige Orth and Maddie Mehciz put Western Oregon in front, 22-21.

A Farrell kill, followed by one of the Cook and Farrell tandem blocks, gave the Crusaders the lead back, and after the Wolves briefly tied it at 23-23, back-to-back WOU miscues finished off the set.

NNU then steamrolled to a big lead in the third, up 18-11 on a Thomas service ace, and eventually closed out the win on a Farrell kill.

Kendra Bodine led the NNU offensive with 12 kills in the win, while Heninger added nine kills, and Farrell had seven kills to go with her four blocks.