Box Score LAFAYETTE – Northwestern State dropped its first match of the Sawyer Camillo Invitational by a score of 3-1 (23-25, 23-25, 25-19, 20-25) to Southern Mississippi to open up the squad's second tournament of the year on Friday.

"Lots of credit to Southern Miss," fifth-year head coach Hugh Hernesman said. "I thought they played really well; out defended us and outworked us. They definitely deserved to win that match."

NSU (2-2) and Southern Miss (4-1) battled it out through set one with the two squads remaining within three points of one another until the Golden Eagles scored six of seven points to stretch their lead to 19-13. Following a NSU timeout, kills from Stacey DiFrancesco and Emily Johnson kept the game within reach at 20-17.

The NSU rally was not done yet, though. Kills from Glynna Johnson and Lauren Agan brought the deficit to two points at 23-21 forcing another Golden Eagles timeout. NSU would eventually fall 25-23 to end the first set.

"We started out tentative and unprepared so that's mine and our staff's fault," Hernesman said. "We need to do a better job of getting them ready. What we do now is learn from this and get better."

Southern Miss picked up where it left off in set one, jumping out to a 9-5 lead in set two. However, NSU battled back, taking its first lead since 4-3 in set one maintaining a 12-11 advantage on a Johnson kill. Southern Miss and NSU traded blows with the Golden Eagles scoring five consecutive points followed by four straight from the Lady Demons to tie things at 16.

NSU built a 19-17 lead thanks to kills from Agan and Aubrey Davis before the squads sat knotted at 20. Despite pressure from NSU courtesy of an Emily Johnson service ace at 24-23, Southern Miss would close out the second set 25-23.

With their backs against the wall in set three, NSU came out swinging taking leads of 12-9 and 16-11 with help from senior Vanessa Coleman's three kills. A DiFrancesco kill pushed the lead to five at 19-14 as NSU would go on to take the must-have third set 25-19.

Southern Miss proved to be too much in set four but it would not be without a fight. After NSU tied the game at six, the Golden Eagles put together streaks of three and four consecutive points as Southern Miss staked claim to a 17-11 lead. However, NSU would score five of the next six points capped off by an Agan kill bringing the Lady Demons to within 18-16.

Agan added two more kills and NSU was within 20-19 forcing a Southern Miss timeout. The Golden Eagles would score five of the game's final six points to claim the set 25-20 and match 3-1.

"What we know about our team is that we're good enough to beat a lot of teams but on the flip side, there are still a lot of teams that can give us problems," Hernesman said. "We'll come back more focused tomorrow and do our best to continue to grow towards conference season."

Agan led all scorers with 14.5 points and 14 kills. Senior Keelie Arneson added 27 digs and four assists while Glynna Johnson tallied 11.5 points and nine kills to go along with a .391 hitting percentage. Emily Johnson had 23 assists and NSU's only service ace on the day. Davis and Neely added 9.5 points and 6.5 points respectively while each finished with six kills.

Northwestern State will continue action at the Sawyer Camillo Invitational on Saturday with matches against Southern at 9 a.m. and host Louisiana-Lafayette at 5 p.m.