Box Score NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene head volleyball coach Doug English told Brooke Foster during the first week of practice she needed to work on her serving.

Whatever Foster has done since then certainly paid off Thursday.

The Nighthawks junior served a school-record nine aces in a 25-10, 22-25, 25-18, 25-19 victory against Saint Martin's in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.

"At the beginning of the season, he pulled me aside and said, 'Brooke, you need to stop missing your serves,'" Foster said. "That is something I've been working really hard at in practice, so it's nice to see that paying off."

As a team, the Nighthawks (5-5 overall, 1-2 GNAC) also set a school record with 22 aces. Senior Jess Brennis had six of her own.

"That is two really special serving games by our team," English said. "Our goal is to have one ace for every error and we have three aces for every error tonight.

"That legitimately won us the match, because attacking was pretty even."

Foster's mark is the most in the rally-scoring era, which began in 2001. Her nine tied the overall school record with Cheri Dailey, who had nine in a side-out scoring match in 1995. The old team record was 17 set in 2012 against Walla Walla College.

Foster had five aces in a row in the first set as the Nighthawks jumped out to a 12-0 lead.

"I was feeling pretty confident, so I started adding some pace on the ball which I don't usually do," Foster said. "That definitely helped with my confidence and at that point, I was just kind of in a zone."

The Nighthawks were scoring so many points off of aces, that the bench was egging the girls on.

"Anna (Gable) was saying that we needed to compete for the school record and that was what we kept talking about," Brennis said. "That was fun. It was awesome."

As a whole, the Nighthawks played strong throughout Thursday's match to earn their first GNAC victory of the season. NNU hosts Seattle Pacific at 1 p.m. Saturday.

"Any time we win is a big deal," English said. "Saint Martin's hit really well and had very low errors. Coming back from a close Set 2 loss and being able to respond confidently and make some plays out of timeouts was huge.

"To win when another team is playing well is important and we played well all night too."

Megan Nelson added three aces, while Kayla Sale and Caroline McMahon had two each.

Foster added 19 kills, 17 digs and hit .378 for an all-around monster match. Abbey Blum had 14 kills and 14 digs, while Natalie Sullivan had nine kills. Nelson added 41 assists and 11 digs.

"Not only does it help our confidence, but also the confidence with the students who want to come watch us play," Foster said. "Doug has been really good about talking about lowering our errors and if we do that, we can beat any team in the GNAC."

On Thursday, the Nighthawks eliminated errors and had a monster serving night to defeat the Saints (0-12, 0-3) and get their first GNAC win of the season.

And fittingly, the match ended on an ace.