COEUR d'ALENE - One of Lake City's top volleyball players recently made a verbal commitment to play for a four-year university.

Timberwolves middle blocker Madi Farrell, who has been a part of the program all four years, committed to play for Northwest Nazarene University, a Division II team located in Nampa.

The fit and familiarity of playing for the Crusaders were part of the appeal to Farrell. The other schools the 6-foot-2 Farrell looked at were University of Portland, Eastern Washington University, Dixie State and Wichita State. Farrell wants to major in pre-physical therapy.

"I decided when I started my whole journey to try to find a college, I really wanted to find a place where I could see myself living, playing volleyball, have my major," Farrell said. "I was looking for the whole package and every different school offered many different opportunities and it was really nice seeing all these different options out there. And then Northwest kind of clicked, I felt right at home ... I love the team, I love the coach."

Farrell said she's looking forward to playing for coach Doug English. One of her future teammates, Northwest Nazarene sophomore Taylor Gould, played volleyball two seasons ago at Coeur d'Alene High and was a teammate of Farrell's with the North Idaho Thunder club team.

The Crusader student who showed Farrell around campus, Cassidy Ball, is a friend of Farrell's older sister, Carly Farrell, who attends Boise State. A member of the baseball team, Kaleb DeHaas, is also a friend of Carly's.

Madi Farrell cited the school's status of helping her Christian faith. On the same day Farrell verbally committed, she watched Northwest Nazarene (10-4, 6-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) beat Seattle Pacific in four games, 25-21, 25-17, 23-25, 25-15 in Nampa.

"I know they'll be able to help me grow my faith," Farrell said. "The girls are all sweet, they pray before the matches. They have seminars each week. Overall, it was me finding a place that has all the qualities that I'm looking for. I think it's a great level of play."

Farrell suffered a torn ACL and MCL knee injury during her sophomore year. That was the same season Carly was a senior on the Timberwolves' volleyball team.

"It was devastating," Farrell said. "It was really rough at the beginning. Once I got into the whole physical therapy thing and saw the goal at the end of the finish line, it was a lot easier for me to cope with it. It made me a stronger person and I was able to overcome obstacles."

The next volleyball match for Lake City (20-7) is Tuesday at home in the 5A Region 1 tournament, against Coeur d'Alene (19-10).