MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks volleyball team snagged their second win of the season with a 3-1 win (25-16, 25-22, 21-25, 25-18) over the Western Oregon Wolves on Saturday.

Striking the ball well all match, the Nighthawks never had their hit percentage fall below .256 in a set and three of their four sets saw percentages above .333, all of which were for wins.

With a tight first set through the first 20 points, Northwest Nazarene (2-11, 2-5 GNAC) spread their lead to seven at 19-12 to create some distance and finished set one with their largest lead of the game at nine. NNU won the kill battle 17-6 in the opener while Western Oregon (5-8, 2-4 GNAC) was held to a .037 hit percentage.

"It was just a little off tonight, we started a little slow," said Western Oregon head coach Tommy Gott. "It's always tough when you put yourself behind the eight ball against a talented team like NNU."

The Wolves slid into a 6-1 deficit to open the third set, trailing 2-0 in the match. Facing a sweep, WOU posted a 10-3 rally after trailing by five on their way to the 25-21 set win. Descinda Slaughter added in five kills in the set as well as two blocks.

Making her fourth appearance of the season, freshman Aubrey Stanton contributed a season-high 14 assists, two kills and two digs off the bench.

"I think some of our freshmen stepped up and came ready to play," added Gott. "Aubrey came in cold and made a big impact. She ran her court and looked confident in it. The same can be said for Descinda as well."

Opening the fourth set with a point, it would be the last lead the Wolves held in the match as the Nighthawks pushed out to an early 12-7 advantage to force a WOU timeout.

NNU's Cami Heninger had at least three kills in each set, finishing with 17 total kills along with 21 digs and a block.

Mariella Vandenkooy and Leila Holt each put together double-doubles in the loss for Western Oregon. For Vandenkooy, it was 10 kills and 14 digs while Holt had a team-high 27 assists and 15 digs

Sophomore Sophie Hall led the team in both kills (11) and blocks (6), contributing on all but one block in the match.

The Wolves head on the road for two GNAC matchups next week in Alaska.

"It's always important to stay fresh when making that Alaska road trip. We need to play our game and play the kind of volleyball we know we're capable of. It doesn't matter who we're playing, we just need to play to our own strengths."

In their next match, Western Oregon faces Alaska Fairbanks Thursday, Sept. 27. First serve is set for 8 p.m. PDT.