NAMPA, Idaho – Three weeks ago, the Northwest Nazarene volleyball team probably would not have been able to hang with Central Washington.

On Tuesday, though, despite falling in three sets 25-20, 25-20, 25-20 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference, the Nighthawks continued their upward trajectory.

"I don't know if we score 20 points every set against that team two or three weeks ago," NNU coach Doug English said. "That is nice going forward that we have gotten better, but (Central) is still better than us and played better than us tonight.

"They didn't make a lot of errors and put a lot of pressure on us and they scored a lot of points. They got a lot of kills."

The Nighthawks (4-12 overall, 4-5 GNAC), who saw their three-match winning streak come to an end, hung around with the two-loss Wildcats in each of the first two sets and had chances to win each.

In the third set, they showed some resilience after falling behind 19-9 they rallied to pull within 24-20 and force a timeout by the Wildcats (14-2, 8-1).

Ultimately, the Nighthawks lost, but if they can pick up a win Thursday at Montana State Billings then they'd be at .500 halfway through conference play after opening GNAC play 1-4.

"That is a huge thing for us," English said. "If we go take care of business in Billings then I think we are playing better than we were before. And we will just move forward and see where we are at in the second half."

Tayler Markland had eight kills, no errors and hit a blistering .667. Kayla Sale added eight kills, and Brooke Foster, Natalie Knauf and Abbey Blum had seven each.

Megan Nelson had 19 assists and Mckenzie Lee had 16. Shayli Siegfreid and Cami Heninger each had 13 digs, while Sale added 12.