Box Score STARKVILLE, Miss. – Northwestern State dropped its first match of a Saturday double-header against the Memphis Tigers 3-0 (14-25, 14-25, 14-25) at the Maroon Classic.

NSU (3-5) will conclude the tournament tonight at 7 o'clock against host Mississippi State. Fans can watch the match live on ESPN3.com in conjunction with WatchESPN and the SEC Network Plus.

Memphis (5-4) got off to a hot start against NSU in set one. After a Mackenzie Neely kill put the score at 7-6 in favor of the Tigers, Memphis rattled off three straight points pushing the lead to 10-6. Later an Ashley Elrod service ace brought the deficit to 13-10 but that was as close as NSU would get. The Tigers captured the last five points of the set to win it 25-14.

NSU took its first lead of the match at 3-2 in set two but Memphis quickly put together four consecutive points to take a 6-3 advantage. A NSU attack error stretched the Tigers' led to 10-5 and they never looked back. The Lady Demons tallied four consecutive points highlighted by kills from Glynna Johnson and Lauren Agan as well as a Neely service ace to bring the lead with six at 19-13 but Memphis held on 25-14.

In set three, the Tigers raced out to a 6-0 lead before NSU got on the board with an Agan kill. Later on, an Elrod kill brought the Memphis lead back to five at 12-7 but once again, the Tigers were too much. NSU never found its rhythm and the lead reached 20-10. Six consecutive points put the Tigers ahead 24-10 at match point before finishing the set and match off 25-14.

Agan led the way with eight kills followed by Neely with six. Natalie Jaeger offered up nine assists while Emily Johnson tallied eight. Stacey DiFrancesco, who came in to play libero in the third set, finished with 12 digs and Bailey Martin had 10.