MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Oregon volleyball team opened their home schedule and play in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference drawing unbeaten, nationally-ranked Northwest Nazarene on Thursday night. Despite a solid night blocking at the net, the visiting Crusaders remained undefeated with a 3-0 victory (25-21, 25-19, 25-20) over the Wolves at the New P.E. Building.
 
Last weekend at the D2 West Region Volleyball Showcase, Western Oregon went 3-1 with a pair of sweeps. Northwest Nazarene, however, went a perfect 4-0 in another pod of the Showcase. After Thursday's match, WOU is now 3-5 (0-1 GNAC), while Northwest Nazarene is 8-0 (1-0 GNAC).
 
Western Oregon's offense played even with the Crusaders for the match, as the Wolves matched their opponents with 33 kills. The difference in the match was errors – 27 in the attack game and eight from the service line. WOU led in digs, 50-47, but in a match where all three sets were decided by six or fewer points, those mistakes swung the momentum toward a solid NNU team.
 
Northwest Nazarene took an early lead in set one, 7-3, and held a 13-7 advantage before the Wolves reeled off four straight points on an Amanda Short kill and three NNU errors. Two kills from Short sandwiched two more Crusader error helping the Wolves pull back to within 20-18. Two kills from Paige Orth and Maddie Mechiz made the score 24-20, but NNU closed out the set on a service error.
 
Set two saw a similar opening run by the Crusaders aided a 15-9 lead. Orth led a four-point scoring spurt with consecutive kills preceding an attack error and an Orth block. WOU could not maintain the momentum seeing Northwest Nazarene score the next five points. Tough defense and blocking forced late NNU errors, but the visitors posted a kill and forced a hitting error to take the second set by six points.
 
After falling behind 5-1 in the third set, WOU wasted little time pulling even with two more Orth kills. NNU inched ahead 17-13 with back-to-back points and extended the lead to six, 20-14. The Wolves would get as close as a margin of four, but a kill from Madi Farrell won the set and the match.
 
Alisha Bettinson paced the WOU offense with a team-best nine kills and 10 digs. Orth supplied eight kills, four digs and three block assists. Sydney Blankinship hit .267 and put down seven kills. Christie Colasurdo had a team-best 12 kills and Libbie Hoene added 10 digs.
 
Sophomore Maddie Mehciz handed out 27 assists, while Short had five kills and two solo blocks.
 
The Wolves return to the court at 7 p.m. on Saturday against Central Washington in the New P.E. Building.