NAMPA, Idaho – When the Northwest Nazarene volleyball team saw its 2019 schedule, they knew they just had to survive the first half of conference play to have a shot at a top-three finish.

The Nighthawks opened 1-3 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, but rebounded to finish at .500 thanks to a sweep of Western Oregon on Saturday night.

Now, the Nighthawks (9-8 overall, 5-5 GNAC) have the top half of the conference table in their sight.

"The first half we had our toughest matches on the road," NNU coach Doug English said. "We knew that and we have our tougher matches at home in the second half. We have put ourselves in a real successful spot for the second half."

NNU defeated Western Oregon 25-22, 25-17, 26-24 to finish off a perfect homestand.

"The conference is kind of whack this year," NNU's Abbey Blum said. "Everyone is kind of winning against random people and losing against random people, so I think we have an opportunity to do really well this year."

If they keep playing like they did this week, that is certainly in the realm of possibility.

The Nighthawks dominated the first two sets, hitting .233 in the first and .250 in the second. And while they struggled a bit in the third set, they did erase deficits of 15-11, 19-15 and 24-23 to finish off the win.

"We have been trying to figure out how to keep ourselves calm and push through when the other team is winning a lot of points in a row," NNU's Tayler Markland said.

Blum's 10 kills and 10 digs led the Nighthawks, while Brooke Foster had nine kills, six digs and four cases, Natalie Sullivan had eight kills, Markland had six and Megan Nelson added three kills, two aces, nine digs and 33 assists. Kayla Sale also had 15 digs.

"If everybody is killing balls it is a great thing," English said. "In general, Abbey, Brooke and Tayler are going to get the majority of the kills but any time we can get eight from Natalie and Megan had a couple; balance is great. When you see us getting one dimensional that is when we start getting blocked, so it is nice to have it come from different spots tonight."

The victory was also nice because it came in three sets. The Nighthawks had played three consecutive five-set matches and four of their last five matches had gone five.

"It's so nice. Our bodies are really happy about that," Blum said of the sweep. "In the moment, I don't think I'm like, 'Oh, five sets, I'm going to die.' The adrenaline is pumping, but the next day my body is definitely wrecked."

NNU heads to Seattle Pacific at 8 p.m. MDT on Thursday before playing at Saint Martin's on Saturday to get the second-half started.