By: Robbie Kleinmuntz, Volleyball SID
Box Score
NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State volleyball team kept its SLC Tournament hopes alive with a 3-1 victory over Southeastern Louisiana Saturday night at Prather Coliseum - 25-23, 25-15, 22-25 and 25-13.
Stacey DiFrancesco and Emily Sweet each tallied double-doubles in the win for NSU (9-19, 5-10), and the middle-blockers, Mackenzie Neely and Vanessa Coleman, had big nights to finish off SLU (5-27, 1-14).
“This was just a great overall team effort,” said co-head coach Hugh Hernesman. “Everyone contributed for us and it showed when we had SLU out of system a lot in this match.”
It was the 18th double-double of the season for DiFrancesco, and 13th in conference play as she finished with a match-high 16 kills and 13 digs.
Sweet tallied her eighth double-double of the year with a match-high 48 assists and 12 digs.
In the middle, Mackenzie Neely recorded a career-high 11 kills (.562), and Vanessa Coleman smashed 11 kills and blocked five.
“We received tremendous contributions from our middles tonight. Their kill numbers and hitting percentages were obviously very high, and it showed because they both performed at a very high level in this match,” Hernesman said.
Nicole Hajka also made a big contribution offensively, crushing eight kills and matching her career-best hitting percentage of .500.
“Nicole had a lot of good opportunities tonight and definitely took advantage of them. It was great to see her come out and have a solid match for us,” Hernesman said.
Defensively, Keelie Arneson dug up 14 attacks, and Jessica Guttierrez had a season-high 12.
“Jessica was the player who stood out for us in this match. She really set the tone defensively and kept us in a ton of points,” Hernesman said. “She was all alone with some of their best attackers and made big plays for us all night long.”
For the Lions, Paige Dollison led the team with seven kills (.240), Lindsey Young had 30 assists, and Megan McMillin registered 21 digs.
In the first set, the teams were tied at 10-10 when the Lady Demons reeled off five in a row to go up 15-10 after a couple kills by Coleman, with Hajka serving. NSU continued to cruise and stretched its lead out to 23-14 when Kelly Jimenez found the hot hand and finished on three attacks. Though, SLU took the next seven points to make it 23-21, and had even cut the deficit to just 24-23, but Neely was there for NSU to slam a kill and end it, 25-23.
NSU improved to 18-10 in the opening frame of matches this season.
In the second, the teams went point-for-point all the way up to 14-14 when the Lady Demons took four in a row to open up a 18-14 lead. DiFrancesco had three kills during the stretch. Then, after the Lions grabbed the next point, NSU stepped up its game and won the last seven points of the set to win it, 25-15. Arneson fired three services aces to guide the Lady Demons during the big run.
NSU hit at an overwhelming .423 mark and committed just two errors in the second frame.
After dropping the third set 25-22, the Lady Demons leaped out to a 10-3 start in the fourth frame after a pair of kills from Coleman. NSU then extended the lead out to 19-9 after three kills by Hajka, and finished it 25-13 on a spike by DiFrancesco.
The Lady Demons are now 4-0 against SLU under co-head coaches Hugh and Stephanie Hernesman.
For NSU to make the SLC Tournament, it would have to defeat Nicholls State on Saturday, and have Texas A&M-Corpus Christi lose to Texas State. That would clinch the eighth seed for the Lady Demons. Since McNeese State lost to Stephen F. Austin in five sets tonight, the Cowgirls cannot finish ahead of the Lady Demons if NSU wins Saturday - the first tie-break after head-to-head (which was a 1-1 split) is record within the division. All of NSU's wins have been within the division and would finish 6-4 (if it wins Saturday), while McNeese State finished 5-5 with a match against Sam Houston State left. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi fell to Texas-Arlington tonight in five sets.
The Lady Demons will conclude the regular-season on Saturday, hosting Nicholls State at Prather Coliseum at 2. NSU defeated the Colonels in the first meeting, 3-1 on the road.
