Box Score

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Pushed to the brink, the Crusaders rose to the challenge and once again were victorious.

What a way to wrap up the pre-conference slate.

Unbeaten, the Northwest Nazarene starred down its first loss and then simply said "NO," rallying to beat Point Loma 25-20, 12-25, 23-25, 25-16, 15-10 on Saturday to wrap up the GNAC/Pac West Crossover Tournament.

The win gave NNU a perfect record in four matches in the cross-conference battle, and improved the Crusaders overall mark to an unblemished 7-0 with the Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener now looming.

"We could not have asked for a better preseason," NNU head coach Doug English said. "We were tested, we responded, and we are in a great place headed into the conference."

Conference play begins Thursday at Western Oregon for NNU, which rallied from a two-set-to-one deficit for the second time this season.

NNU nearly held a 2-1 lead in the match, though, as it was tied 23-23 when the SeaLions (1-7) got kills from Brianna Sizemore and Alyssa Rifilato to win the third set.

The Crusaders rallied, snapping a 5-5 tie in the fourth set with a Madi Farrell kill that sparked an 8-2 charge, putting NNU well in command and on its way to evening the match.

And after giving up the opening point of the fifth and decisive set, NNU got three kills in a row from Mari Thomas during a 4-0 run, and never looked back, eventually finishing off the comeback win with a kill each from Cami Heninger, Thomas and Farrell.

"We played a good Point Loma team who did a good job of making things hard for us," English said.

"We had kids play great and make big plays at the end of sets," NNU's coach added. "Mari was huge for us on the outside and Hailey (Cook) probably had a career high for digs."

Cook, the Crusaders setter finished with 21 digs while dishing out 56 assists.

Thomas pounded away with 19 kills and added 14 digs, while Kendra Bodine had 15 kills and 15 digs, Farrell added 14 kills, and Shayli Siegfreid had 26 digs for the Crusaders.