Box Score AUBURN, Ala. – Northwestern State dropped its second match of the War Eagle Classic, 3-1 (21-25, 25-22, 14-25, 24-26) to Florida A&M on Saturday morning.

NSU (3-9) concludes action at the War Eagle Classic tonight against host Auburn. The 7:30 p.m. match will be streamed live on ESPN3.com in conjunction with WatchESPN and the SEC Network Plus.

In set one, NSU jumped out to a 5-2 lead thanks to two ball handling errors, two attack errors and a service error from Florida A&M (1-10). Following the Lady Rattlers timeout, the momentum seemed to swing. NSU attempted to play catchup coming to within two at 12-10 on a Vanessa Coleman kill.

Later, a Stacey DiFrancesco kill followed by Keelie Arneson service ace kept the lead at two with the score at 20-18. Another DiFrancesco kill put the deficit at one, at 21-20 before three straight Florida A&M points brought the Lady Rattlers to set point at 24-20. Florida A&M took set one, 25-21.

Northwestern State rebounded in set two. Consecutive Mackenzie Neely kills and a Florida A&M attack error put NSU up 3-0 early. Shortly later, a Coleman service ace extended the lead to four at 7-3. Kills from DiFrancesco held the lead at three at 11-8. Florida A&M mounted its comeback behind four consecutive points to knot the match at 16-16 in the process forcing a Lady Demon timeout.

The match sat knotted as late as 22-22 but NSU would not be denied. Following a NSU timeout, the Lady Demons rattled off the sets final three points ending it on a Lauren Agan kill at 25-22 and tying the match 1-1.

Florida A&M answered in the third set in a loud way. After Mackenzie Neely led the set off with a kill, the Lady Rattlers put together a streak of nine consecutive points eventually taking a 13-3 lead. Another run by Florida A&M stretched the lead to 12 at 20-8. NSU attempted to provide an answer of their own with four points thanks to kills from Neely, Elrod and Glynna Johnson forcing a Florida A&M timeout at 21-13. However, the lead was enough and Florida A&M took the set 25-14 and led 2-1.

In a must-have set four, Northwestern State again found itself playing catchup. After NSU took an early 3-2 lead, Florida A&M began making its move maintaining a 9-6 lead on a Lady Rattlers kill. NSU got to within one at 10-9 but Florida A&M took five of the next six points and held a 15-10 advantage.

NSU took a timeout trailing 18-12. An Elrod kill and Florida A&M attack error brought the match to within three at 19-16. Shortly later, it was two thanks to a Neely kill forcing a Florida A&M timeout. The Lady Demons inched to within one on two DiFrancesco kills before a Coleman kill knotted the set at 22-22. NSU had the set within its sights taking a 24-22 lead but Florida A&M rattled off four straight points taking the set 26-24 and the match 3-1.

DiFrancesco led the way with 13 kills followed by Neely's 11 and Coleman's eight. Madison Walford tallied an impressive 30 assists while Glynna Johnson contributed five total blocks. Arneson finished with 25 digs as DiFrancesco added 15 and Elrod finished with 10.