One night after their first home loss in two years, the Crusaders bounced back with a 30-16, 30-16, 30-17 win over Centenary Saturday night at the Athletics-Recreation Center.

The Brown and Gold hit a blistering .371 in the match and held the Ladies to a .000 attacking mark. Nicole Schulz (Kewaskum, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) led the charge with one of her best nights of the season, hitting .600 with 14 kills and eight blocks, both match highs.

Allison Sears (Elkhart, Ind./Memorial) matched Schulz with eight blocks, and chipped in 10 kills of her own, while Jessie Fox (Granger, Ind./Penn) added ten kills of her to go with four blocks.

Three other Crusaders hit .400 or better, led by Angie Porché (Lynwood, Ill./Thornton-Fractional South) who committed only one error on 19 attacks, with nine kills, en route to a .421 hitting percentage. Setter Sara Hughes (San Antonio, Texas/Perrysburg, Ohio, H.S.) had five kills on seven attacks, part of a strong all-around game that saw the junior rack up 28 assists, eight digs and two blocks.

Defensively the Crusader block was strong, finishing with 13 blocks from six different players. Valpo also had 52 digs, to only 31 for Centenary, but no Crusader had more than nine and 11 of 12 players recorded at least one dig.

Rebecca Lunceford and Christina Nichols led the Ladies (8-13, 1-2 Mid-Con) with seven kills apiece and Lindsay Bekelja had 23 assists.

Valpo (11-6, 2-1 Mid-Con) finished the four-match homestand 3-1, and will be on the road next weekend with Friday and Saturday conference matches at Western Illinois and UMKC. The Crusaders and Westerwinds will have first serve at 7:00 p.m. Friday, with live coverage available on 95.1 FM, WVUR, and online at www.valpo.edu/athletics.

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