HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Eight days after its offensive explosion in a five set loss to Sam Houston, the Northwestern State volleyball team was held to its lowest attack percentage of the Southland Conference season, falling 3-1 (21-25, 14-25, 25-15, 21-25) to the Bearkats from Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum on Tuesday night.

NSU (11-15, 8-5 SLC) hit just .083, its fourth lowest in 26 matches this season. The Lady Demons will look to rebound from the friendly confines of Prather Coliseum on Friday evening at the squad's senior night which is slated for 7 o'clock against rival Stephen F. Austin.

"It's disappointing," fifth-year co-head coach Hugh Hernesman said. "We didn't come into this match with the level of focus expected for NSU volleyball. It took until the third set for us to start looking like us and at that point, you're in a dogfight and fighting uphill."

In the loss, freshman Aubrey Davis led the Lady Demons with 11 kills – her second highest mark of the season only behind her 15 kills in the last meeting with Sam Houston (16-9, 9-3 SLC). Seniors Mackenzie Neely and Stacey DiFrancesco each posted eight and fellow senior Emily Johnson added 20 assists.

Defensively, NSU limited Sam Houston's powerful offense to a .126 attack percentage – well below its mark of .264 in the first meeting between the two. Davis and junior Glynna Johnson were each a force up front tallying eight total blocks a piece while Neely and senior Vanessa Coleman each added three total.

The Lady Demons held Sam Houston's four-time SLC Offensive Player of the Week Devene Wells-Gibson to a .096 attack percentage, although the senior ended with 19 kills on a whopping 52 attempts.

After falling behind 2-0 early, NSU rebounded in the third set. With the squads knotted at 10, the Lady Demons rallied off 11 straight points including three consecutive kills (Davis, DiFrancesco and Neely) to take a 21-10 advantage before claiming the set 25-15.

In the fourth, and ultimately final set, NSU kept the Bearkats at bay early before five straight Sam Houston points put the home squad up 16-10. A late Lady Demon rally brought the lead back down to three points at 22-19 before the Bearkats closed it out, 25-21.

"As a coach, I need to do a better job of improving our consistency so that's the challenge for the next two weeks," Hernesman said. "It starts tomorrow with our preparation for what will be a great challenge on Friday against Stephen F. Austin."