Box Score CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – An overall team effort in the Southland Conference tournament semi-finals propelled the No. 2 Northwestern State volleyball team to its first-ever conference tournament championship match after a 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-20) shutout of No. 6 Houston Baptist Saturday afternoon in the Dugan Wellness Center.

The championship match is slated for Sunday at 2:05 on ESPN3 as Lincoln Rose and Laura Alford will handle the play-by-play and color commentary. The Lady Demons improve to 21-11 overall, noting the program's most wins in a single season and first semi-final win. They will face the winner of the match between No. 1 Central Arkansas and No. 5 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. HBU (15-18) is eliminated from the eight-team single-elimination tournament.

"I thought our defensive effort and focus was outstanding. We had to slow down HBU's middles to be able to win this match," said fourth year co-head coach Hugh Hernesman. "They're both so good. Our serving was the first step in that and it was outstanding."    

The Sugar Bears claimed the regular season championship after winning 18 in a row to go undefeated in league play, and knocked eighth-seeded Stephen F. Austin out of the tournament on Saturday with a 3-0 win. The Islanders pulled an upset over Sam Houston State, also on Saturday, to advance to the semi-final round.

After four ties in the beginning of the first set, NSU began putting HBU at an arm's length. The final tie came at 11-all, followed by a huge kill from Mackenzie Neely to start the Lady Demons on a three-point run. NSU never looked back as they chipped away at the board for a 25-19 win.

A massive match-high, nine-point run gave the Lady Demons a 16-6 lead in set two, and momentum to head into the break with a 2-0 lead. The Huskies used a six-point run to make a comeback later in the game, but it would not be enough as NSU notched the 25-20 win just a few kills later.

Set three was very back-and-forth. The Lady Demons got off to a 7-2 start, but HBU slowly caught up and cut the lead to three for a 9-6 score. Neither team was able to get on a run throughout the remainder of the set, but the Lady Demons chipped away enough for another 25-20 victory.

"Offensively, we got great play on the pins. Stacey and Ashley got the bigger numbers, but I thought that we got a lot of crucial kills from others as well," said Hernesman. "It's the beauty of our offense - you just never know who is going to creep up and get you from match to match."

Ashley Elrod and Stacey DiFrancesco led the attack with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. DiFrancesco dug up a season-high 20 Husky attacks to record her eighth double-double of the season, while leading the team with two service aces.

"Once you try to take away one thing, you leave other things open and exposed and put a lot of pressure on the back court to make plays. Having Keelie back there for us makes that possible, but our mid-back play was very strong as well," said Hernesman. "I thought our middles blocked a great match and were right on top of their situational assignments."  

Libero Keelie Arneson notched 25 digs for the defense, and dished out five assists as well. Setter Emily Johnson and Natalie Jaeger combined for 37 assists on the day as Glynna Johnson put up four total blocks to aid in the middle.