NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State volleyball team utilized one of its strongest offensive matches of the season to push Sam Houston State to five sets but ultimately came up short falling 3-2 (25-20, 17-25, 23-25, 25-20, 9-15) at Prather Coliseum on Saturday afternoon.

"I felt like we played better today than we did on Thursday," fifth-year co-head coach Hugh Hernesman said. "Obviously not the result we wanted but Sam is a good team. They played with a lot of balance in their offensive game and they got a lot of kills out of some of their role players.

"We hit .224 which is a big number for us but the formula for us is that generally with hit around .160 to .180 and hold our opponents to .120 or .140. They hit .264. We didn't do the job we needed to defensively but some of that is Sam had a really good match."

NSU's (10-14, 7-4 Southland Conference) .224 attack percentage tied its fifth highest in 24 matches this season. Leading the way was freshman Aubrey Davis who finished with a season-high 15 kills and was among four Lady Demons who tallied double-digit kills in the loss to Sam Houston (13-9, 6-3 SLC).

"It was a little bit out of nowhere," Hernesman said of Davis's performance. "On Thursday, she was coming off an ankle sprain on Wednesday. She's a dynamic athlete. She gets to the ball fast and I thought she did a nice job. She did a really good job limiting errors. We knew it was bound to happen at some point for her where she'd have a big double-kill match and today was it."

Other key contributors offensively included seniors Vanessa Coleman who added 11 kills in 15 total attacks, Mackenzie Neely who finished with 13 kills and Stacey DiFrancesco who tallied 11 kills. NSU was able to create several opportunities offensively, finishing with 170 total attacks, its third highest mark in 11 league matches.

"(Coleman) is good in transition," Hernesman said. "I think she can pop into spots where people aren't expecting her in transition and that's also a product of the quality we have on the pins. People have to give respect to Mackenzie and Stacey and Caiti (O'Connell). I thought her and Natalie (Jaeger) formed a really good tandem today."

Jaeger finished the match with a season-high 25 assists while her setting counterpart Emily Johnson added 23 assists and 15 digs. Defensively, junior Glynna Johnson continued her strong season with six total blocks while DiFrancesco finished with four. Sophomore libero Bailey Martin tallied an impressive 25 digs, tying her fourth highest output of the season and marking the second consecutive match with 25 or more.

Saturday's loss was the first in six matches by Northwestern State at home. NSU concludes its three-match homestand on Thursday when it welcomes league-leading Central Arkansas into town. The match will be 1K Day, with NSU pushing to reach 1,000 fans in attendance.

"Central Arkansas has been if not the best, one of the best teams in our conference over the course of the last four or five years," Hernesman said. "They're a great program. Last time they were here, we had over 800 people in the stands and there were a lot of community people out here that hadn't seen volleyball at all. We couldn't ask for a better opponent. This has been a great rivalry for a very long time from back when this senior group was freshmen."