NATCHITOCHES – After a 10-match road trip to start the season, the Northwestern State volleyball team will play its home and conference opener on Thursday against Central Arkansas at the revamped Prather Coliseum at 7 p.m.

 

The Lady Demons will be the first team to play on the newly installed floor in the coliseum. The upgraded home court also includes extra seating for fans, improved entrance ramps, industrial sheet metal and sound board to replace the honeycomb brick wall on both sides of the floor, and new signage and redesigned banners.

 

The $647,280 project took about five months to complete.

 

NSU (2-8) is coming off a 3-1 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette at the CenturyLink Premier tournament in San Marcos, Texas. Stacey DiFrancesco registered a career-high 18 kills in the match, and Emily Sweet tallied a double-double with 32 assists and 14 digs.

 

DiFrancesco and Kelly Jimenez led the way offensively for NSU in the non-conference schedule, with 124 and 97 kills, respectively. On defense, Keelie Arneson dug up 206 attacks against non-conference foes, while Mackenzie Neely recorded a team-high 30 blocks.

 

Additionally, Arneson currently ranks second in the SLC in digs (5.42 d/s) while DiFrancesco is third in kills (3.26 k/s) and Sweet ranks ninth in assists (8.26 a/s).

 

Defending regular-season Southland Conference champions, Central Arkansas (3-6), is coming off a 2-1 weekend at the Magnolia Invitational in Oxford, Miss. At the tournament, the Sugar Bears defeated both Big Ten contender Northwestern and Arkansas-Little Rock in five sets. They were then knocked off by Ole Miss, 3-0.

 

UCA was picked to win the conference again this year in the pre-season Coaches Poll, even after losing two starters from last year's squad.Still, the Sugar Bears hoisted four of the 12 athletes on the SLC Preseason All-Conference teams this season. Senior outside hitter Jessica Hays will be the one to watch for, as she currently ranks first in the SLC in aces and second in kills.

 

NSU and UCA saw each other play at the Texas Tech Invitational at the beginning of the month – the Sugar Bears did not win a set at the tournament, while the Lady Demons took two from UNLV.

 

The Lady Demons will also host the Holiday Inn Express Classic this weekend at Prather Coliseum, taking on Alcorn State on Friday at 7 and Arkansas State on Saturday at 2.

 

Every match of the tournament offers free admission.