NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene volleyball hung tough with No. 22 Seattle Pacific on Saturday afternoon, but fell to the Falcons in four sets.
NNU falls to 9-10 on the season and 5-6 in GNAC action.
The Nighthawks and Falcons stayed close for most of the first set before NNU pulled away for a 24-21 lead to force set point. SPU rallied in a big way, however, scoring five in a row to take the frame 26-24.
Set two was very similar, with NNU eventually taking a 23-18 lead. The Falcons tried to come back again, cutting the deficit to 24-23, but a
Sarah Lyons kill ended the threat and evened the match at 1-1.
Seattle Pacific came out strong in set three and led for most of the way, but NNU was able to mount a comeback and even the score at 21. Much like the first set, though, the Falcons closed with four straight points to win 25-21.
The momentum carried over for SPU as they took the first five points of set four. They would lead by scores of 12-5 and 19-11 before taking the final frame 25-16 to win the match.
Abby Black led the Nighthawks with 11 kills while hitting .217.
Miya Koch had nine kills,
Sarah Lyons added eight, and
Hailey Cheney recorded six with a .357 percentage.
Caroline McMahon and
Maren Dent had four aces apiece, while McMahon added 18 digs and Dent had 10.
NNU will hit the road next week to visit Western Oregon on Thursday and Saint Martin's on Saturday.
