NAMPA, Idaho – The Northwest Nazarene volleyball team played solid defense Thursday, but couldn't quite get over the hump in a four-set loss to Alaska Anchorage.

The Nighthawks lost 25-20, 25-21, 21-25, 25-22 against the second-place team in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

"That is one of the best offensive teams we are going to play and we were keeping balls in and making them play," NNU coach Doug English said. "We did a great job on defense and were right there with them. Hopefully we can take care of our side the rest of the time and win some going forward."

Both of the first two sets were extremely close throughout and in the second set, NNU (10-10 overall, 6-7 GNAC) tied it at 21-21 before Anchorage scored the last four points to get the win.

In the third set, the Nighthawks led by as many as seven until the Seawolves (16-5, 11-2) closed to within 21-19 and 22-20. But Brooke Foster had three consecutive kills to give NNU the victory.

In the fourth set, the Nighthawks trailed by as many as six before pulling within 21-20 but they couldn't quite finish the rally.

"In Set 3, I thought we did a really good job of taking care of our side," English said. "I think we only made three errors in that game and against a team like Anchorage you have to be as clean as you can. I thought we could have done a better job in the other three sets, but I'm proud of how we fought."

Foster finished with 18 kills, two blocks and 20 digs. Abbey Blum added 11 kills and 17 digs, while Tayler Markland had eight kills. Kayla Sale had a monster match, finishing with 25 digs and three aces. Megan Nelson had 42 assists and three aces.

NNU hosts Alaska at 1 p.m. Saturday.