NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State volleyball team will close out its season-opening 10 match road trip as it travels to San Marcos, Texas to play in the CenturyLink Premier on Friday and Saturday.

NSU (1-5) is coming off a tough, competitive five-set match against UNLV at the Texas Tech Invitational. Six Lady Demons set career-highs against the Rebels, and the team recorded a season-high nine service aces in the match.

 

“I'm really happy with how we're serving; it's really great right now,” said co-head coach Hugh Hernesman. “This has been taking teams' out-of-system and puts us in good situations.”

 

NSU garnered career-highs from Mackenzie Neely (10 kills, six blocks and three aces), Kelly Jimenez (14 kills), Stacey DiFrancesco (12 digs), Tamara Hanna (11 digs), Emily Sweet (44 assists) and Nicole Hajka (.312 hitting percentage) against UNLV.

 

“All of our players have excelled at their previous levels, and that is really starting to translate here in the collegiate game,” said Hernesman.

 

Keelie Arneson enters the weekend ranked second in the Southland Conference with 131 digs (5.70 per set), while DiFrancesco is sixth in the conference in kills (72). Sweet is also top-10 in the SLC with 185 assists and 8.04 assists-per -set on the season.

 

“The most important thing is that we are continuing to improve,” said Hernesman. “We are starting to reach a whole new comfort zone at the collegiate level. We are getting used to the speed, physically and balance of the game now.”

 

The Lady Demons will open play on Friday against Texas State (4-3) at 11 a.m. and Houston Baptist (6-2) at 5 p.m. On Saturday, NSU will take on New Mexico State (4-2) at 10 a.m. and finish play against Louisiana-Lafayette (5-2) at 4.