Box Score

NAMPA, Idaho (Oct. 6) -- Senior Marcy Hjellum (Kennewick/Kamiakin HS) had 21 kills, including the match-winner, as the 25th-ranked Central Washington University volleyball team rallied from a 2-1 match deficit to defeat host Northwest Nazarene University, 23-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 15-9, on Saturday night at the Johnson Sports Center.

The Wildcats have won seven straight matches to improve to 12-4 overall on the season and 6-1 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play. NNU fell to 9-8 overall and 2-5 in the GNAC.

Hjellum, whose 21 kills were one shy of her previous season- and career-high set last week against Seattle Pacific University, capped a fifth set that CWU dominated from start to finish. The Wildcats scored the first two points of the set and jumped out to a 12-4 lead to break away and set the tone for the match win.

The two set losses for CWU were by identical 25-23 margins, and both times, the Wildcats were deadlocked with the Crusaders at 23 apiece before NNU scored consecutive points. Meanwhile, the Wildcats' set wins in the second and fourth sets were by three points after they had taken sizeable leads.

In addition to another double-double by Hjellum, which also included 13 digs, junior Emmy Dolan (Castle Rock) and redshirt freshman Rachel Hanses (Yakima/West Valley HS) added double-figure kill totals with 12 and 11, respectively. Five Wildcats had 10 or more digs, including a team-high 21 from sophomore Kaely Kight (Spokane/Mead HS) and 16 from redshirt freshman Zoe Iida (Bothell). Redshirt freshman setter Catie Fry (Tacoma/Mount Si HS) had 54 assists, four aces, and 13 digs.

Northwest Nazarene was led by Kaitlyn Tuholski with 19 kills and 13 digs. Heather Allen had eight assisted blocks for the Crusaders, who totaled 16 blocks as a team.

CWU, which has played all but three of its 16 matches on the road so far this season, will return home next week for contests against Western Oregon University on Thursday (Oct. 11) and Saint Martin's University on Saturday (Oct. 13) as they wrap up the first half of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule.