WACO, Texas – In the midst of its month long road trip, Northwestern State hits the road for the first midweek match of the season as the Lady Demons play Baylor on Tuesday at 7 o'clock from the Ferrell Center.

NSU (3-6) is coming off a difficult weekend at the Maroon Classic where the squad went winless in matches against South Alabama, Memphis and host Mississippi State. In its back-and-forth 3-2 defeat to the Bulldogs, featured on ESPN3, freshman libero Bailey Martin had 39 digs, ranking third in school history.

Baylor (8-2) heads into the midweek on a four-match winning streak including wins over Illinois State, George Washington and Columbia at the George Washington Invitational last weekend.

Among the eight wins for the Bears include two over Southland Conference foes. Baylor swept Abilene Christian and rolled over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 3-1 as part of the program's annual Baylor Invitational in Waco.

"Baylor is having a good year," fifth-year head coach Hugh Hernesman said. "Last year they had a couple people hurt. They get a kid back from ACL this year; they had a transfer that had to sit a year. They're going to be balanced and they're going to be physical but not unlike what we saw this past weekend or any of the weekends before that."

Senior Mackenzie Neely leads Northwestern State with 67 kills and 79.5 points. Sophomore Lauren Agan ranks second in kills with 60 followed by senior Stacey DiFrancesco's 50. Through 31 sets played, senior Emily Johnson has posted 140 assists.

DiFrancesco and Martin have 116 digs and 110 respectively, while helping fill the void of senior libero Keelie Arneson who is day-to-day with a knee injury. Up front, junior middle blocker Glynna Johnson leads the way with 40 total blocks.

"I think what we we found this weekend was that we rely on Keelie Arneson a lot more than outside people realize," Hernesman said.  "For us, we knew the small things she did. We're hoping we might be able to get her back tomorrow against Baylor. We'll see today at practice."

The meeting will mark the fifth all-time between NSU and Baylor with the Bears claiming all four prior matchups. In 2013, NSU and Baylor met as part of the Fairfield Inn North Baylor Classic with the Bears taking a 3-1 victory.

Northwestern State will have another quick turnaround following the match as the squad heads to Auburn, Ala. for the War Eagle Classic. NSU will take on Jacksonville State on Friday at 4 p.m. followed by Saturday matches against Florida A&M at 9:30 a.m. and 7:30 against Auburn.

"We knew this was going to be a brutal stretch," Hernesman said. "We're a little bit beat up but we talked all spring and even all fall last year about being disciplined and doing the kind of things that allow us to be healthy and ready for these situations. I think the biggest concern for us is getting rest. Our team is one that if they have to choose between rest and school they choose school so we have to do our best to give them opportunities to do both while still trying to improve as a team as the season goes along."