NATCHITOCHES – Playing in its annual Dig Pink match raising awareness for breast cancer, Northwestern State volleyball utilized a tenacious defensive effort to close out New Orleans in three sets (25-20, 25-11, 25-15) in front of 342 fans at Prather Coliseum on Thursday night.

Attendees were also treated to complimentary #FORKCANCER shirts as a part of NSU's Fork Cancer week.

"It's our teams' favorite time of the year wearing pink" fifth-year co-head coach Hugh Hernesman said. "It's a great cause. It's good to see the whole crowd raising awareness. I thought the jerseys looked great and a special thanks to Fellowship of Christian Athletes for that."

In the match, Northwestern State (8-12, 5-2 Southland Conference) limited the Privateers (6-16 overall, 0-8 SLC) to a .088 hitting percentage highlighted by four Lady Demons registering three or more total blocks.

"They hit .263 in the first set and I thought they did a nice job of finding kills and playing low-error," Hernesman said. "Sometimes it just takes us a little while to feel out a team and we can find some soft spots or find a tendency."

NSU was playing without senior outside hitter Stacey DiFrancesco who is day-to-day and was out with a personal illness.

"With Stacey being out of this match, we were kind of nervous because she is a glue player for us," Hernesman said. "I thought that Bailey (Martin) stepped in a good ball control role; I thought Caiti (O'Connell) stepped into her role and passed the ball real well and kept us in system. We handled the ball in first contact real well."

Martin finished the match with 15 digs while O'Connell posted an impressive seven kills and was second only to Mackenzie Neely's 10 for NSU. Elsewhere, Emily Johnson finished with 14 digs followed by Natalie Jaeger's 13 and Lauren Agan tallied five kills.

NSU returns to play at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana from Prather Coliseum where the Lady Demons will seek their sixth conference win, this time against a different type of opponent.

"Southeastern is a big physical team," Hernesman said. "They're playing very well right now. We're playing a team that was a little smaller and more skilled in the back court. Now you have Southeastern who brings a big block. We'll have to play a bit differently. Our whole preseason was full of big physical teams so that hopefully has us prepared for another good opponent on Saturday."