TURLOCK, Calif. – Northwest Nazarene's Abbey Blum and Megan Nelson had two of the best individual matches in modern program history Friday.

Blum set the school record for rally scoring with 30 kills, while Nelson's 62 assists tied her for sixth-best in a single match.

Thanks to the pair's stellar offense, the Nighthawks won another five-set match rallying past Notre Dame de Namur 27-29, 25-16, 20-25, 25-23, 15-5 at the D2 West Region Volleyball Showcase hosted by Stanislaus State.

"We were just on fire and Megan was feeding me like crazy," Blum said. "(Notre Dame) kept moving the block, so I could see if they were out on the lines and so I could hit cross court. And if they moved in, I hit down the line. It's like they were setting me up for success."

NNU (3-3 overall) switched to rally scoring from side-out scoring in 2001. Blum's 30 kills tops the previous school record of 29 set by Lindsay Grant in 2009 and Lindsay Miller in 2004.
Nelson's 62 assists ties her with Hailey Cook for sixth in a single match since 2001. Cook did it in 2016. The modern school record for assists in a match is 73 set by Aubrey Harrington in 2004.

"I've worked really hard and it hasn't been an easy journey," Nelson said of her career. "It's nice to see hard work finally paying off in my last year.

"We were really pushing balls to the net and when we do that it is easy to feed Abbey. She was going off, so I was just feeding her any ball that was a good pass."

Blum only made five errors on 58 attempts, hitting an outstanding .431 percent. Brooke Foster had another strong match as well, recording 19 kills with just five errors and 22 digs. Natalie Sullivan added 10 kills, Kayla Sale had 24 digs, Caroline McMahon had 15 digs and Nelson had 13 digs and four service aces.

"Abbey was unbelievable," NNU coach Doug English said. "We were having a little trouble early on scoring points, but it got to the point where we set every ball we could to her and she killed it.

"Megan put our hitters in a really good spot to kill balls and she recognized how we were scoring and put us in a good position."

The victory marked the second five-set win in a row for the Nighthawks, who struggled in those matches a season ago.

"I think this year we have more of that drive to win," Nelson said. "Last year, we kind of lacked that passion. This year we have more of a desire to be out there and play hard."

NNU trailed 2-1 heading into the fourth set, the Nighthawks rallied from a 19-16 deficit for a 25-23 win thanks to three kills by Foster and two by Blum.

The fifth set was all Nighthawks, as Sullivan had five kills and Tayler Markland had three as NNU took advantage of the Argonauts trying to slow down Blum.

"We just have this grit and it is unmatched from last year," Blum said. "We talk about it every day. Our mindset this year is that we are going to hold each other accountable and play gritty and not give up."

The Nighthawks face Holy Names at 1 p.m. MDT on Saturday in their final match of the weekend.