Box Score

ELLENSBURG (Nov. 3) -- Senior Marcy Hjellum (Kennewick/Kamiakin HS) led a balanced attack with eight kills and 15 digs, and the Central Washington University volleyball team overcame a sloppy offensive night by both teams with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-18 victory over visiting Northwest Nazarene University on Saturday night at Nicholson Pavilion.

The Wildcats, ranked seventh in the NCAA Division II West Region this week, won their second straight match, improving to 17-7 overall and keeping pace in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings by upping their league record to 10-4. Northwest Nazarene fell to 12-13 overall and 5-9 in the conference.

Neither team hit particularly efficiently on the match, as the visiting Crusaders had a negative hitting percentage and 23 attack errors in the first two sets while CWU had just three more kills (15) than errors (12) over that same span.

The first set was the closest of the three frames, with eight total ties before the Wildcats closed on an 8-1 run to break the final deadlock at 17 apiece. Only two of the team's eight points over that closing run were scored on kills by the CWU offense, as NNU had five hitting errors and a ball-handling violation.

Hjellum, who sat out Tuesday's non-conference match at Walla Walla University to rest up for tonight's league contest, remained a focal point of the Wildcats' offense on Saturday, leading the team in kills in each of the first two sets. She had just two kills in the final set, when true freshman Linden Firethorne (Clinton/South Whidbey HS) accumulated five of her seven kills for the match as the Wildcats hit a robust .293 with just two hitting errors.

Redshirt freshman Rachel Hanses (Yakima/West Valley HS) and junior Erin Smith (Selah) added five kills apiece for the Wildcats, while sophomore Kaely Kight (Spokane/Mead HS) nearly met her season average in digs with 15 total over the three-set affair.

Northwest Nazarene got at least one kill from nine of its 12 players to appear in the match, led by seven each from Michelle Terpstra and Becky Flores. Terpstra added 19 assists, nine digs, and three blocks for the Crusaders. Linnea Phillips led all players with 22 digs for NNU.

Central Washington returns to the road next weekend for the final time during the 2012 regular season. The Wildcats visit Saint Martin's University on Thursday (Nov. 8) and Western Oregon University on Saturday (Nov. 10) before closing out the regular season at home on Nov. 15 and 17 versus the Alaska schools.