NAMPA, Idaho – If it's not one thing it's another in the early going for the 2018 Northwest Nazarene volleyball team.

The Nighthawks who had struggled with serve receive in two losses to open the season instead struggled with hitting the ball Saturday, as they lost 25-20, 17-25, 24-26, 25-22, 15-8 to Biola on Saturday during the Fairfield Inn & Suites Invitational.

"The serve receive was fantastic today," NNU's Abbey Blum said. "We just couldn't put the ball away which was so disappointing because we worked so hard on serve receive and then we hit the ball into the block. It's a bummer. Shayli (Siegfreid) and Kayla Sale did a great job."

The Nighthawks (0-3) made 32 hitting errors and had a .129 attack percentage for the match. Biola, on the otherhand, made 22 errors and hit .217 in the match, including eight kills with just two errors in the decisive fifth set.

"It is hard to fix something when you don't have practice," NNU coach Doug English said. "We are so close and you are playing good volleyball teams. It's a bummer that we lost another five-setter and we are 0-3, but we could've been 2-1 with the way things could've worked out.

"We are just trying to learn and grow and get better as we get through this."

The Nighthawks play Biola again at 9 a.m. MDT on Thursday at Azusa Pacific in the 2018 West Region Showcase.

In the earlier match Saturday, Dixie State swept Cal State Monterey Bay 25-22, 25-19, 25-17. Dixie State's Megan Treanor was named the tournament most valuable player. The all-tournament team was made up of Treanor and teammate Malary Marshall, Monterey Bay's Jenna Tobin and Anela Visesio, and Biola's Karly Dantuma and Sierra Bauder.

For the Nighthawks it was a weekend to learn to gel as a team as well as to continue to try and get better.

"Coach said at the end of the game we just need to stick together and work on being better teammates who have each other's backs," Blum said. "We've got to finish a game. We have to learn how to start strong and finish strong. We pick it up in the middle of the game, but that's not the time it needs to happen."

Blum led the Nighthawks with 14 kills and 2.5 blocks. Cami Heninger added 12 kills and 17 digs, while Jess Brennis had eight kills and Tayler Markland and Brooke Foster each had seven. Megan Nelson had 28 assists and 15 digs, while Mckenzie Lee added 18 assists. Siegfreid had 17 digs and Sale added 13.