Box Score LAFAYETTE – Northwestern State took all three sets (27-25, 25-14, 25-18) against Southern on Saturday morning to win its second match of the Sawyer Camillo Invitational from Lafayette.

"We started out a little slow with some new faces on the floor," fifth-year head coach Hugh Hernesman said. "It's always a concern of ours because of players being comfortable in a new lineup. I thought we made the plays we needed to in order to pull out that first set. After that, we got our flow back and started to play better volleyball and better together."

NSU (3-2) battled a slow start in set one as the Lady Demons found themselves knotted up with Southern (1-6) 16 times before taking the win 27-25.Senior Stacey DiFrancesco contributed 5.5 points, four kills and one service ace to keep NSU in the tightly contested set.

NSU would pick up its pace in the second set, racing out to a 9-5 lead and forcing a Southern timeout. Two kills by Caiti O'Connell and another by DiFrancesco pushed the lead to six at 14-8. Moments later, a kill from Ashley Elrod took put NSU up eight and the squad never looked back. Natalie Jaeger added a service ace and another Elrod kill late finished off the set at 25-14 in favor of NSU.

The Lady Demons continued their momentum in set three, tallying five straight points and taking an early 9-4 lead. An O'Connell kill and Southern error forced the Jaguars to take a timeout down 12-4. Kills from Glynna Johnson and O'Connell followed by three consecutive Southern attack errors took the lead to 19-8 with the sweep in sight.

A run of five consecutive Southern points were haulted by a DiFrancesco kill as NSU held a 22-17 lead. As only seemed appropriate, DiFrancesco seized the set's final kill, finishing it off 25-18 as well as the 3-0 sweep for NSU.

DiFrancesco led all scorers with 10 points followed by O'Connell with nine and Elrod with 6.5. The trio led the squad in kills as O'Connell tallied nine, DiFrancesco added eight and Elrod finished with six. Emily Johnson led the way with 12 assists and Jaeger tallied three service aces. Bailey Martin finished with 14 digs followed by Emily Johnson with 11.

"I thought Bailey did a real nice job at libero in the last two sets," Hernesman said. "Our defense was just as strong and she played with a lot of confidence so that was a great positive for us. She was fun to watch."

NSU will conclude action at the Sawyer Camillo Invitational at 5 p.m. against host Louisiana-Lafayette.