RIVERSIDE, Calif. – To be successful in high stakes matches every good volleyball team needs its role players to step up.

And that is exactly what sophomores Megan Nelson and Jess Brennis did Thursday.

The pair got significant playing time as Northwest Nazarene University ran a different offense while defeating Central Washington 25-23, 25-27, 25-18, 23-25, 15-8 in the first round of the NCAA Division II National Tournament.

"Running a 6-2 (offense) against them puts us in more favorable matchups," NNU coach Doug English said. "We had four players with double-digit kills and it allowed us to score more points and attack on the middle and the right side more than we normally would."

NNU (25-4) will face Western Washington at 6 p.m. MST on Friday in the second round of the tournament. The Nighthawks volleyball team has never advanced past the second round of an NCAA tournament.



Against Central, NNU decided to switch up the offense to help combat a size disadvantage against the Wildcats. The teams had split their regular-season matches with both going five sets.

Brennis was a spark in the early going and finished with 10 kills and two blocks. Nelson helped run the offense, dishing out 29 assists, recording 13 digs and serving three aces. Of the 114 sets NNU has played this season, Brennis has played in 29 and Nelson 28.

"I thought they totally stepped up," Cook said. "It's not easy to do, especially in such a high stakes game like that. They played really hard and did a good job."

The pair augmented the familiar steady names for the Nighthawks.

Middle blocker Madi Farrell had 20 kills and five blocks. Outside hitter Kendra Bodine had 17 kills and 14 digs. Outside hitter Cami Heninger had 15 kills and two blocks. Cook finished with 31 assists, 11 digs and five aces.

"We're really excited to move on and accomplish what we did," English said. "It's been a battle all year."



NNU played its best volleyball in the fifth set as English highlighted three big plays that helped blow open a close set.

"Jacquelyn (Johnson) made a huge diving dig, Mari (Thomas) got a stuff block and Madi got a stuff block," English said. "That took it from 9-7 to 12-7 real fast. We kept sticking to it and played really clean volleyball in the fifth set."

NNU won a back-and-forth first set and then took a 24-21 lead in the second set, but couldn't hang on. Rather than letting it bother them, the Nighthawks dominated the third set and appeared poised for victory. Central pulled away late in the fourth set to set up the decisive fifth set.

"We come out strong in the fifth set," Cook said, "we've done that the last two years. We felt confident going in and we came out really firing."

Shelby Mauritson's 15 kills and 16 digs led Central.