Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — Not once, not twice, but six times the Crusaders battled to earn a match point.

Then, finally, Northwest Nazarene's volleyball team got a break that helped the Crusaders finish off an upset of No. 15-ranked Western Washington in a classic battle between the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's hottest teams.

On their fourth match point of the decisive fifth set — and sixth of the night for NNU — Hailey Cook's serve ripped off the tape on the top of the net and fell to the floor, setting off a Crusader celebration of a 17-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-27, 19-17 victory over the Vikings at the Johnson Sports Center on Thursday night.
 

"It feels good, and I think we played a good volleyball game," NNU head coach Doug English said as the Crusaders scored their fifth straight win with the upset.

"We worked really hard and we're starting to play some really good, tough, consistent volleyball, and that's the fun part, that's the exciting part," he added. "We're going to win matches when we play that way, and that's what I'm most excited about."

A bit overly excited about the challenge of playing Western Washington, the Crusaders got off to a poor start to the night, though, falling into an early 20-11 deficit in the first set before making a late charge.

An important late run that helped NNU (17-5 overall, 10-5 GNAC) settle into the match.

"I think we were just excited to get out and play and you saw that," English said. "We made a lot of errors. But going through that we kind of settled down at the end of set one."

NNU quickly turned things around in the second set as a Cook service ace put the Crusaders up 5-2, a tandem block by Cami Heninger and Natalie Knauf made it 9-3, and a Knauf kill put NNU up 16-7 en route to evening the match.

And then the battle was on.

A Heninger and Knauf block followed by a Kayla Sale service ace helped the Crusaders stretch an 18-17 edge to 20-17 in the third set before a kill by Madi Farrell finished off the win.
 

Looking to capitalize on that momentum in the fourth set, NNU earned itself a match point up 24-23 after a Mari Thomas kill, but couldn't finish off the 15^th-ranked Vikings (16-7, 12-3).

A Heninger kill gave the Crusaders another chance to end it, but once again WWU fought back and eventually won it on an Abby Phelps kills to force a decisive fifth set.

Unbeaten in three previous 5-set matches this season, NNU's coach felt good headed into the finale.

"So far this team's been great in the fifth and they're super reliable," English said.

Once again, NNU came through, but only after a Farrell kill fended off a match point for the Vikings.

The Crusaders then gave themselves chance after chance to finish it until Cook set a second touch over for a kill, and an 18-17 lead.

Cook then stepped behind the serving line and served up the decisive ace, finishing a huge upset.

Cook finished with four aces, 13 digs and a career-high 64 assists in the win for the Crusaders, who got a match and NNU season-high 25 kills from Kendra Bodine, along with 13 kills.

Farrell added 14 kills, Thomas had 13 kills and 21 digs, Heninger added 13 kills, Shayli Siegfreid had 28 digs and Jacquelyn Johnson added 11 digs for the Crusaders, who next play another key match against Simon Fraser on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Johnson Sports Center.