BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Northwest Nazarene volleyball team lost its Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener Thursday, losing in four sets to No. 2 Western Washington.

The Vikings won the match 25-23, 19-25, 25-10, 25-15.

"Overall, we are bummed we lost, but we are excited with how we competed," NNU coach Doug English said. "We competed well against Western Washington, knowing they are the No. 2 team in the country and the best in our conference.

"Even though it was a loss, we can use it to get better and challenge them in the last match of the year."

NNU (4-4 overall, 0-1 GNAC) had its chances throughout.

The Nighthawks rallied to pull within 24-23 in the opening set before losing on a service error.

NNU then dominated the second set, leading by as many as 10 points.

After a forgettable third set, the Nighthawks appeared to be in position to potentially push the match to a deciding fifth set but a close call changed a 14-13 score to 15-12. Western (9-0, 1-0) then closed on a 11-3 run to win the match.

"We didn't serve-receive well," English said. "Abbey (Blum) took 38 swings and probably a third were from the back row, which is hard to score from. We just need to be a little better on serve-receive to put us in position to score."

Brooke Foster's 13 kills and 11 digs led the Nighthawks, while Tayler Markland had nine kills, Blum had eight kills, 13 digs and four aces, Natalie Sullivan had seven kills and Lexi Ward had four. Megan Nelson finished with 34 assists and 11 digs.

NNU's offense looked strong after the first two sets, as they had 27 kills and were hitting north of .200. For the rest of the match, though, they managed just 15 kills and had a negative hitting percentage.

"That is something we have to look at, is what happened to our offense," English said. "Was that on us or an adjustment they made?

"I think we are pretty encouraged even though we lost, though. We really did compete hard."

NNU is back in action at 2 p.m. MDT on Saturday at Simon Fraser.