NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene volleyball took set one but Alaska Fairbanks came back to take the next three and defeat the Nighthawks 3-1 in NNU's last home game of the season.
NNU moves to 11-13 on the season and 7-9 in GNAC action.
Before the match, the Nighthawks honored their five seniors:
Helen Sullivan,
Megan MacKinney,
Molly Anderson,
Sarah Lyons, and
Caroline McMahon.
After the two teams got out to a 5-5 tie early in the first set, the Nighthawks caught fire for the rest of the frame. NNU would go on a 20-9 run to take the set 25-14, capped by a kill from
Sarah Lyons.
Fairbanks would lead for most of set two, taking a late 23-19 advantage. The Nighthawks stormed back, though, taking six of the next seven points to set up match point at 25-24. The teams battled back and forth from there, with neither team able to go up by two until UAF took a 32-30 win.
The momentum carried over for the Nanooks after that, with the visitors taking a 25-20 victory in the third and 25-12 in the fourth to win the match.
Maren Dent led the NNU offense with 18 kills and added 15 digs for a double-double.
Sarah Lyons and
Londyn Giles each added 10 kills.
Molly Anderson led the Nighthawks back line with 18 digs, with
Caroline McMahon adding 13 and
Megan MacKinney 11.
Gabi Moore had 43 assists and nine digs.
The Nighthawks will head to the Canadian border for their final two matches of the season next week, first stopping on the U.S. side in Bellingham on Thursday, Nov. 16 to face Western Washington before wrapping up the year at Simon Fraser on Saturday, Nov. 18.
