BURNABY, B.C. – The Simon Fraser volleyball team fought off a valiant Northwest Nazarene (Idaho) squad in five sets Saturday afternoon at the West Gym in Burnaby, B.C., to extend its winning streak to six matches.

SFU (14-4, 8-3 GNAC) went up two sets in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference matchup before the visiting Nighthawks (4-14, 2-9 GNAC) captured the next two to force a deciding game, which the hosts won 15-8. The set scores for the match were: 25-19, 28-26, 21-25, 21-25, 15-8.

The home team got 19 kills from freshman opposite Brooke Dexter and 18 from Camryn Vosloh, a sophomore outside hitter. Freshman middle Abby Willett had a big day with 13 kills, a solo block and seven block assists. Fellow middle, sophomore Kalyn Hartmann also knocked down 13 kills. She had a solo block and five block assists. Senior setter Julia Tays had 62 assists and 22 digs. Senior libero Bianca Te had a game-high 25 digs.

Northwest Nazarene had all the momentum after winning the third and fourth sets. But SFU started the deciding set on a huge roll with Tays serving. Vosloh and Willett teamed up on a block to open the fifth, and the team won the next five points as well to go ahead 6-0.

After NNU got on the scoreboard, the hosts went on a 4-1 mini-run, capped off by a Hartmann solo block, to force a timeout at 10-2. The Nighthawks couldn't cut their deficit to less than six points the rest of the way.

"When we needed it, our offence scored," said SFU head coach Gina Schmidt. "You typically win games if you can outhit the other team and that's what we did when it counted. NNU was scoring and we struggled to find ways to score in the second, third and fourth sets because they were playing good defence. Then we finally figured it out, and made adjustments in the fifth."

SFU trailed 10-9 in the first set before reversing the tide with a 5-0 surge. A Dexter-Willett block started the run, and it ended with a Hanna Kolof-Willett block. NNU's late run closed the gap to 20-18 before the hosts clinched the set by taking five of the next six points.

Much like the match in its entirety, a rollercoaster second set saw SFU come out ahead but only after a big comeback by the Nighthawks.

A couple of combination blocks, a pair of Vosloh kills and a Tays ace made up part of a 9-2 Simon Fraser stretch that allowed it to take a 16-8 advantage. With little room for error, NNU impressively came back to tie the set at 24-24 after fighting off three set points. It had the chance to win after Mattisyn Cope's block put the Nighthawks up 26-25, but Willett and Dexter had consecutive kills. Kolof and Hartmann came through with a block on SFU's fourth set point to finally end the proceedings at 28-26.

NNU won sets 3 and 4 by identical 25-21 scores. The Nighthawks jumped out to an 18-9 lead in the third. The fourth set was tied on 14 different occasions, with the last deadlock coming at 21-21. Then NNU recorded the last four points to send the match to the distance.

SFU's attacking percentage was .249 compared to .207 for NNU, which also had 10 service aces.

SFU is headed north next weekend for games at Alaska Anchorage (Thursday) and Alaska (Saturday). The team's final home games will take place Nov. 4 (Unity Game vs. Western Oregon) and Nov. 6 (Senior Night vs. Saint Martin's).

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