NAMPA, Idaho – The Northwest Nazarene volleyball team lost in five sets Thursday to Alaska in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match at Johnson Sports Center.
The Nighthawks (6-20 overall, 6-13 GNAC) let a 2-0 lead get away in the 17-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-15, 15-11 loss.

"This is just how our season has been," NNU coach Doug English said. "We are really, really close and we are in matches to the end, but we just can't get that final kill or set when we needed to."

Thursday was the sixth five-set match on the season for the Nighthawks as they fell to 1-5 in those matches including losing three times when leading two sets to none.

In the fifth set, the Nighthawks jumped out to a 9-5 lead and led 11-8 at one point, but the Nanooks (14-12, 12-7) closed the match on a 7-0 run.

"Credit Fairbanks for the way they played their last three sets," English said. "They came out and cut down on their errors and scored a ton of points. Whatever they did differently on blocking and defense, I felt like they limited the amount of kills we had after the first two sets."

Abbey Blum, playing on a bum ankle that she hurt Saturday night, finished with a team-high 15 kills. Cami Heninger added 13 kills and Brooke Foster had eight. Shayli Siegfreid had 24 digs, Kayla Sale had 17 and Heninger 14. Megan Nelson had 25 assists, while McKenzie Lee had 20 and nine digs.

NNU hosts Alaska Anchorage at 1 p.m. Saturday in the final match for the Nighthawks' three seniors: Siegfreid, Heninger and Natalie Knauf.