LUBBOCK, Texas – The Northwestern State volleyball team took the court in front of a rowdy, 1213 person Texas Tech favored crowd and would fall to the host team 25-15, 25-16 and 25-17.

 

“It's really good for volleyball when you see a nice crowd like this with a lot of energy,” said co-head coach Hugh Hernesman. “We just approached this game as being the underdog and having nothing to lose. We obviously played a very strong program that's also on the rise, and we have to give them credit.”

 

After the Texas Tech's pre-game video on the big screen, blacked-out introduction and cheerleader led starting lineups, NSU (1-4) came out and played a competitive three sets. The team tallied 25 kills, distributing them evenly through the roster.

 

Freshman Emily Sweet dished out a team-high 19 assists, and also recorded seven digs.

 

“Sweet did a great job today, and we definitely had above average passing. She has a really good ability to better those low balls, and overall did a really nice job for us,” said Hernesman.

 

Defensively, the Lady Demons received big efforts from freshmen Keelie Arneson and Tamara Hanna, who registered 14 and six digs, respectively. Hanna's digging performance matched her career-high.

 

NSU came out focused and determined, going point for point with Texas Tech (4-1) early on. A Kelly Jimenez spike kept them close, trailing 10-9, and Stacey DiFrancesco would add a kill to keep pace at 12-12. Though, the Red Raider strikers would then begin to catch fire and shot out to a 19-13 lead. The Lady Demons just couldn't get the momentum back after this, and would drop the first set 25-15. DiFrancesco looked strong with five kills in the set, while Arneson swarmed the backcourt with six digs.

 

“We didn't want to walk into this match and play passive and safe. We knew we had to stay aggressive throughout and challenge their blocking,” said Hernesman. 

 

The Lady Demons started slow in the second set, trailing 10-3 after a few miscues. Still down 14-4, a couple Vanessa Coleman kills and a DiFrancesco ace highlighted a four-point spurt for NSU to cut the deficit to 14-8. Later down 19-9, the Lady Demons used their biggest run of the match by reeling off the next five points after some nice assists from Sweet and got back into it, trailing 19-14. However, Texas Tech would answer with a five-point run of its own and would eventually take the set 25-16. Sweet had tallied 11 assists at this point of the match.  

 

“We were swinging high on the Texas Tech hands in the first set, and then made the adjustment of going lower in the second which won us a lot of points,” Hernesman said.

 

NSU got off to a 2-0 start in the third set after a Jimenez kill and Nicole Hajka ace. It later led 5-4 when Arneson drew up an ace of her own. Though, the Red Raiders would follow up by taking the next six points, forcing NSU to play from behind at 10-5. Later trailing 19-10, the Lady Demons would take seven of the next 10 points to cut it down to 22-17; NSU recorded five kills during the streak. Though, Texas Tech recorded a couple aces and went on to win the third 25-17.

 

“We got better in this match. We are learning to play a more physical game and definitely made a lot of nice adjustments as we went along. We hadn't been doing that in our first few games,” said Hernesman. “I'm just really proud of the effort today, we are definitely getting to where we need to be.”

 

Northwestern State will look to rebound in its tournament finale tomorrow against UNLV at noon.