ABILENE, Texas – The Northwestern State volleyball team will conclude its regular season on Saturday when the squad takes on Abilene Christian from Moody Coliseum at 2 o'clock.

Senior Stacey DiFrancesco heads into the match with 1,286 career kills, just five shy of the NSU school record of 1,291 held by Tiffany Cronin (1994-97). Earlier this season, The Woodlands, Texas native became the school's career leader in total attempts and currently has 4,524.

In its last action on Thursday, NSU (12-16 overall, 9-6 Southland Conference) posted one of its most dominant victories of the season in a sweep over Incarnate Word. In the win, the squad held the Cardinals to a .029 hitting percentage while the Lady Demon offense posted 33 kills and hit .200.

"I feel good about how we played last night and how we executed our on both the offense and defensive side of things," fifth-year co-head coach Hugh Hernesman said. "Once again, tomorrow is part of the bigger picture for us which is to be playing at our best at the most important time of the year."

The Lady Demons conclude the regular season after building up a reputation for being one of the conference's strongest defenses. NSU leads the league in opponent hitting percentage (.151), blocks per set (2.50) and is second in digs per set (17.41).

NSU will be tasked with slowing down ACU (6-23, 4-11 SLC) junior Jennifer Loerch who ranks fifth in the Southland with 3.73 kills per set and is second with 426 total kills.

"When you play ACU, the first thing you need to do is try to find a way to limit Jenny Loerch," Hernesman said. "She's having a great year and is such a big part of their team. That being said, she's not their entire team and they've got a good number of weapons that can hurt you besides her."

Saturday marks the second meeting between the two squads, with NSU claiming a hard-fought 3-2 victory over ACU in its home opener on Oct. 2. In that match, the Lady Demons jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the Wildcats rallied back before falling in five sets. Northwestern State had three players with double-digit kills including Mackenzie Neely and Caiti O'Connell who each posted 18.

"While we've played them once already this year, it was over a month ago and a lot has changed in terms of their offense," Hernesman said. "We were able to get a good look at the film last night and we'll look again today before we give the scouting report, but we should be ready."

After the match, NSU will turn its attention to the Southland Conference Tournament, which begins on Friday from Prather Coliseum. At 9-6 in conference play, NSU can lock up the fifth seed with a win over ACU or a Houston Baptist loss to Sam Houston.