NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene volleyball defended their home court on Thursday night with a convincing three-set sweep of Saint Martin's.
NNU improves to 7-6 on the season and 3-2 in GNAC action.
Saint Martin's got off to a hot start in set one with the first five points going their way and eventually went up 17-9. The comeback would begin after that, though, as the Nighthawks cut the deficit to 22-16 before rattling off seven straight points to take a one-point lead, 23-22. Moments later, an SMU attack error ended the set at 25-23 in favor of NNU.
The momentum stayed squarely on NNU's side for the second set, as the Nighthawks jumped out to an early 8-1 lead. NNU didn't look back, leading 19-9 and 20-12 before scoring the last five points to take the frame by 13, 25-12.
Set three seemed to be going much the same as set two, with NNU rolling to leads of 14-7 and 20-14. The Saints fought back to trail by just two, however, at 22-20. NNU would shut the door though with three of the last four points, coming on an SMU error and a pair of kills from
Maren Dent.
Dent and
Miya Koch led NNU with 10 kills apiece while
Londyn Giles added eight. Dent also had three aces and six digs.
Caroline McMahon led the back line with 10 digs and added a pair of aces.
Gabi Moore,
Sarah Lyons,
Madi Smith, and Koch all contributed three blocks.
NNU improves to 27-1 in their last 28 matches against Saint Martin's.
NNU is back in the Johnson Sports Center in just two days, hosting Western Oregon on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
