SAN ANTONIO – Redshirt junior Caiti O'Connell hit a season-high .429 to go along with eight kills as Northwestern State volleyball downed Incarnate Word in three straight sets (25-20, 25-14, 25-15) on Thursday night from the McDermott Center.

Stacey DiFrancesco added seven kills, as the senior inched closer to the NSU career kills record of 1,291 held by Tiffany Cronin. DiFrancesco currently sits just five shy (1,286) of the mark with one regular season match and the Southland Conference Tournament remaining.

"Really efficient match for us offensively," fifth-year co-head coach Hugh Hernesman said. "We came out focused and when things got a little chaotic in the middle of the second set, we did a great job of calming our side and re-grouping."

Defensively, NSU (12-16 overall, 9-6 SLC) held UIW (10-19, 6-9 SLC) to a .049 hitting percentage, the lowest mark for the Lady Demon defense during conference play and best mark since limiting Southern to a -.018 mark on Sept. 6.

"Our pin hitters did a lot of the heavy lifting tonight," Hernesman said. "Once again, that's the beauty of our offense; you never really know who's going to get you from match to match. Caiti, (Mackenzie) Neely and Aubrey (Davis) got after the right side of the court and Stacey was really good out of system against a pretty steady double block."

O'Connell got NSU out to a quick start, tallying five kills while hitting .714 in the first set. The squad strung together a streak of four straight to go up 14-9 and force an Incarnate Word timeout. The Lady Demons never looked back, taking the set, 25-20.

The offensive explosion carried over into the second set when five NSU kills including two from junior Glynna Johnson put the Lady Demons up 11-4. The Cardinals made a push of their own, bringing the lead back to15-11 before NSU countered with four straight shortly after to take a 21-13 advantage. DiFrancesco ended the set with a kill putting NSU up 2-0 heading into the break.

Runs of four straight points and five consecutive in the third set highlighted by three kills from DiFrancesco put the NSU lead at 20-11. Vanessa Coleman added a kill and a block to help the Lady Demons claim the set, 25-15 and capture the sweep.

Coleman's six total blocks tied a season-high and marked the second straight match the senior had attained the number. Fellow senior Mackenzie Neely, who is NSU's season leader in points and kills, was big once again, finishing with nine points and seven kills in addition to her four blocks.

Aubrey Davis added another strong match to her freshman campaign tying sophomore Bailey Martin with a team-high 10 digs. She also added five kills and an impressive three service aces. Senior Emily Johnson finished with 18 assists and seven digs while sophomore Natalie Jaeger added three service aces and 12 assists.

NSU finished with 10 service aces on the day marking the fourth time this season the squad has tallied double-digits in the category.

The Lady Demons close out the regular season on Saturday against Abilene Christian from Moody Coliseum. The match is slated for 2 o'clock.