Box Score NAMPA, Idaho (Sept.18) – The Central Washington University volleyball team opened Great Northwest Athletic Conference play Thursday night, losing in straight sets to Northwest Nazarene 17-25, 23-25, 20-25.
 
The 11^th ranked Wildcats fall to 7-2 on the season, 0-1 in the GNAC, while NNU improves to 8-1, 1-0 in GNAC play.
 
We were a little tentative tonight, but bottom line is that we got outplayed," Head Coach Mario Andaya said. "They played better defense then we did and were more consistent with their hitting."
 
The Wildcat offense struggled in the first set hitting just .075 collecting just 10 kills with seven hitting errors.  In comparison the Crusaders hit .297 with 15 kills and just four attack errors. The Wildcats held just one lead in the opening set at 1-0 before the Crusaders jumped out to an 11-4 advantage as they cruised to a 25-17 set victory.
 
Although the CWU offense did a better job offensively, they were unable to capture the second set losing 23-25.  Central Washington held multiple one point leads in the set but couldn't manage to put a run together even though they outhit NNU .195 to .190.
 
Central Washington kept things close in the third and final set but an 11-6 run late in the set led to a 21-16 lead for the Crusaders en route to the 25-20 set victory and 3-0 sweep of the Wildcats. 
 
"We need to be a little more balanced and more physical, two things that have brought us success so far this season," Andaya added. "If we want a chance to do well in conference we have to get better at executing the things we do well on the road."
 
Linden Firethorne was the Wildcats top hitter on the night collecting 14 kills on 35 attempts.  Kiah Jones was the only other Wildcat with double-digit kills with 12 on 39 attempts.
 
Northwest Nazarene was let by the duo of Elayna Rice and Kendra Bodine who had 13 and 17 kills respectively as both hit over .400 in the contest.
 
Up next the Wildcat will travel to Saint Martin's University this Saturday, Sept. 20 for a 7 P.M. matchup.