Box Score

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — A strong serving effort and a flair for the comeback helped the Crusader volleyball team remained undefeated.

Rallying midway through the opening set to take control of the match, Northwest Nazarene rolled to a 25-22, 25-23, 25-15 win over Cal Poly Pomona on Thursday at the GNAC/Pac West Crossover Tournament hosted by UC San Diego.

"We won the match serving the right people and serving tough," said NNU head coach Doug English, whose team faces host UC San Diego at 4 p.m. (MT) and BYU-Hawaii at 9 p.m. (MT) in the tournament on Friday.

Thursday against the Broncos (2-3), NNU got things rolling by erasing a 17-12 deficit in the opener.

A Kendra Bodine kill sparked a five-point charge that also saw strong serving by Hailey Cook.

A Cami Heninger kill, one of her career-high nine in the match, put the Crusaders on top for good ahead 19-18, as NNU inched away for the first-set win capped by a Madi Farrell kill.

"Cami did a nice job for us on the right side today and killed a lot of balls," English said.

In the second set, it was the Broncos who rallied late as a tandem block by Natalie Knauf and Mari Thomas put NNU on top 21-17, and a Heninger kill gave the Crusaders a 23-21 lead.

Cal Poly Pomona managed to tie it, 23-23, before back-to-back Bronco errors finished off the second-set win for NNU.

The third set was lopsided throughout, with a final Heninger kill closing out the sweep for the Crusaders, who got 13 kills from Bodine, 23 digs from Shayli Siegfreid, and 33 assists from Cook.