CALDWELL — The battle of attrition hit the volleyball court — at least for one night.

Yep, Tuesday in the Canyon County clash — volleyball style — both teams felt the loss of a few key players.

For the Yotes, the loss might be the biggest as senior Kathryn "Killer Kat" Ely missed the College of Idaho's battle with Northwest Nazarene, along with wins over Northwest Christian and Corban over the weekend.

The problem? That pesky stress fracture that sidelined Ely all last season.

"She saw the doctor (Tuesday) and we're hopefully with some rest she'll be able to come back," C of I coach Liz Mendiola said. "We're just going to try to preserve here and get her to a point where she'll be able to play."

Truly a big loss as Ely led a potent Yote offense starting the night, with 144 kills. She's one of six players with triple digits in that category.

Of course, playing a non-league match against the Crusaders, along with three teams in the lower half of the league means the C of I might be able to get away with resting Ely for a week or two.

But ...

"We're still in a situation where we have some tough matches coming up and we're kinda in that precarious spot where we can't afford to drop any sets," Mendiola said, adding that the loss of Ely doesn't mean the Yotes are worried.

"Even so, I feel comfortable, I feel really comfortable with the group that we have. We're just a little thin."

While Ely missed Tuesday's match due to a past injury flaring up, three others sat out due to illness, including the Yotes' Stacey Drumm, one of the team's top defenders.

Of course, maybe even bigger was the illness-factor for NNU as potential All-American Lindsay Grant and libero Haley Hevern both watched Tuesday's action.

Grant, a senior outside hitter, leads the team in kills (285) and is second only to Hevern (376) in digs (331).

Just an opportunity in coach Jared Sliger's eyes.

"We talked before the match, anytime you have that sort of thing you can go one way or the other, you can see it as an opportunity or you can see it as 'Oh my gosh, our libero and our outside No. 1 are out,'" Sliger said. "I thought we did a really good job of seizing the opportunity in the first game, it didn't look like we were missing a beat."

Unfortunately for NNU, the lack of Grant and Hevern did take a toll as the Coyotes serving and hitting provided too much of a challenge for the NCAA Division II's best defensive team, missing it's two best defenders.

"Our serve received broke down, that's where we really missed Lindsay and Haley was our serve receive I thought," Sliger said.