LOCAL ROUNDUP: NNU women's soccer salvages tie

The Northwest Nazarene women’s soccer tallied a late goal to salvage a 2-2 draw against Montana State Billings in a GNAC match on Saturday.

The Nighthawks move to 4-1-3 on the season and 2-1-1 in GNAC play.

The goals started early, with MSUB breaking through first in just the fifth minute on a goal from Kendall McGraw.

NNU would tie things up just three minutes later, though, when Nicole Lewis found Madison Grande streaking into the box for Grande’s third tally of the season.

The Yellowjackets took the lead back in the 24th minute with a goal from Jackie Sharpe and would go into halftime up 2-1.

The second half would be scoreless all the way up to the 87th minute, when Alexis Cromwell found the back of the net for the equalizer. Lewis notched her second assist of the day to bring her season total to four, while it was Cromwell’s second goal of the year.

Only one shot would be recorded in the following final minutes as NNU and MSUB settled for the 2-2 draw.

MEN’S SOCCER

Northwest Nazarene tied 0-0 with Western Washington.

The Nighthawks’ record is now 2-3-3 overall and 0-0-2 in GNAC play.

Sawyer Price played all 90 minutes in the net for the Nighthawks and was credited with six saves. The Nighthawks put two shots on goal. The first one was by Jimmy Koufidakis, and the second was by Johnny Ramirez.

VOLLEYBALL

BRONCOS FALL ON THE ROAD

Boise State came up short against New Mexico, falling 3-1 (25-20, 16-25, 25-20, 25-20) in a tightly contested match.

The loss was the first for the Broncos in Mountain West play and snapped a five-match wins streak as they moved to 7-7 overall and 3-1 in the league.

The first frame saw six ties and four lead changes as the Broncos fell by five points 25-20. Up two at 20-18, the Lobos used a 5-2 run to close it out for an early 1-0 match advantage.

Boise State regrouped and won the second set by nine points after seeing the score tied eight times and the lead change twice. With the score tied at 11, the Broncos used a 3-0 run to take the lead for good up 14-11. Paige Bartsch (three kills) and Noelani Helm (block solo and kill) combined for five of the Broncos’ final six points to claim the win.

The final two sets would finish with the same score as set one at 25-20 in favor of the home side. Both were tight until late when the Lobos put the sets away to claim the 3-1 victory.

Neither team hit the ball particularly well, as UNM outhit Boise State .182 percent to .136 percent. The Lobos also used 16 blocks to their advantage, while the Broncos tallied 10.

Bartsch finished the match with a team-high 22 kills to go with seven digs and two block solos for a team-best 24 points.

Helm recorded a double-double on 37 assists and 12 digs; she also had three kills, three blocks, and one service ace.

NNU LOSES TIGHT MATCH

Northwest Nazarene battled back to force a fifth set after going down 2-0, but Western Oregon held off a full Nighthawks comeback to take the fifth frame and win the match.

NNU moves to 7-7 on the season and 3-3 in GNAC action.

The Nighthawks would hold late leads in both of the first two sets, but the Wolves finished strong in each frame to take victories of 25-22 and 25-21.

The third set was not nearly as close, as NNU came alive to take leads of 12-7, 19-9, and 22-10 before claiming the set 25-16 on a Londyn Giles kill.

The momentum remained on NNU’s side for set four, with the home team jumping out to a 12-4 advantage. Western Oregon started chipping away and rallied late, though, cutting the deficit all the way down to one at 24-23. Giles put the set away for NNU, however, with another kill to send the match to a fifth frame.

Despite dropping the fourth set, Western Oregon kept the momentum from their comeback attempt as they built out an 11-5 lead in the final set. NNU would cut it to 12-10, but that was as close as they would come as the Wolves took the frame 15-11 to win the match.

Caroline McMahon had 18 digs and Sarah Lyons added six blocks at the net.

Three Nighthawks had double-digit kills, with Giles at 11 and Miya Koch and Abby Black recording 10 apiece.

CROSS COUNTRY

The College of Idaho women’s cross country landed four runners in the top 12, including a first-place finish by Sage Martin and runner-up performance by Abbey Shirts en route to a team victory at the 2023 Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational in Salem, Oregon.

Martin covered the 5k course in 17 minutes,17.9 seconds just ahead of teammate Shirts, who crossed the line in 17:20.2 to lead the Yotes. Teammate Ellyse Tingelstad was the fourth runner across the line in 17:26.3. Next for College of Idaho was Kahea Figueira, who was 12th in 17:55.1 and Charlie Duff, who was 43rd in 18:53.4 to round out the top five for the Yotes.

As a team, College of Idaho recorded 62 points ahead of a 23-team field that included multiple NCAA Division I teams and select Cascade Collegiate Conference foes.

The College of Idaho men’s team took fourth in a field full of NCAA Division I competition at the 2023 Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational.

CCC rival Eastern Oregon took home the team title with five runners in the top 26 for 77 points to edge Mt. Sac, who scored score 79. The Yotes’ top five were from 12th through 35th on its way to 120 points.

The first runner across the finish line for College of Idaho was Hayden Bostrom in the 16th place, who covered the 8k course in 24:58.9 and next was Daniel Butler, who was 23rd in 25:08.1. Elias Everist and Braden Heath were 33rd (25:13.6) and 34th (25:14.4), respectively. To round out the top five was Brevin Vaughan in 25:22.1 and 42nd place.