NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene volleyball completed a comeback for the ages on Thursday night, rallying from down two sets to none including fending off four match points in the third frame for a thrilling five-set victory over Alaska Anchorage.
NNU improves to 11-12 on the season and 7-8 in GNAC action.
The victory is NNU's first over UAA since 2017, snapping a 10-game skid against the tough Seawolves.
The first two frames were as close as could be, but UAA was able to eke out a pair of 25-23 wins to take the two-set advantage.
The Seawolves seemed to be on their way to a sweep with a 19-13 lead in the third set, but the Nighthawks had other ideas. A 5-1 NNU run cut the deficit to two at 20-18, but UAA would hold off NNU momentarily to take a 24-21 lead and force match point.
A service error,
Morgan Wilding kill, and
Londyn Giles kill would erase the match point advantage though and even things at 24. After a Seawolf point, the Nighthawks finished the incredible rally with an a UAA attack error and kills from
Hailey Cheney and Giles to win 27-25.
NNU found themselves down late in the fourth frame at 20-17, but once again the Nighthawks had a stunning rally in them. A
Miya Koch kill ignited an 8-0 run to win the set 25-20, with the stretch including a pair of aces from
Helen Sullivan.
In the decisive fifth set, what else could happen than another amazing Nighthawks comeback. Down 8-5, NNU scored nine unanswered points to take a 14-8 lead and put the match away. Incredibly, all nine points were on the attack with no UAA errors, as five of those nine points were Koch kills, two
Maren Dent kills, and a kill and ace from Giles.
It was then none other than
Miya Koch who put the giant exclamation point on the comeback, drilling home her sixth kill of the final frame to win 15-9 and take the match 3-2.
Koch led four Nighthawks in double digit kills with 14, followed by Giles and Cheney at 12 and Dent at 11. Koch also hit .333 to lead NNU in attack percentage while adding four blocks.
Caroline McMahon was as strong as ever on the back line, tallying 31 digs. Giles also added 23 digs and two aces in a fantastic all-around effort.
Morgan Wilding led NNU with 28 assists, while Cheney led with five blocks.
NNU will cap off the 2023 regular season this Saturday, hosting Alaska Fairbanks at 1:00 p.m. for Senior Day in the Johnson Sports Center.
