HUNTSVILLE, Texas – There is a long list of reasons why the Northwestern State volleyball team should be on an emotional high entering Saturday's 1 p.m. match at Southland Conference rival Sam Houston State.
NSU is in the hunt for a Southland Conference Tournament berth. It is looking for its first road weekend sweep of the season. It has momentum on its side, having won three of its last four matches.
However, first-year head coach
Sean Kiracofe can boil down his team's motivational factor to a single instance.
"They're excited just for the chance to play Sam Houston again," he said. "They feel they should have won when we played them at home (on Sept. 29). They have the motivation from that. There's nothing added to it."
Saturday's matchup with the Bearkats (10-13, 4-5) is a rematch of Sam Houston State's 3-2 victory in Natchitoches on Sept. 29.
In that match, Northwestern State (6-18, 4-7) held a 2-1 lead before the Bearkats took the fourth set in extra points and used that momentum to nab a five-set victory.
In the three-and-a-half weeks since that match, much has changed. NSU has won three of its last four matches while Sam Houston State enters on a four-match losing streak.
"We were right there in position to take the match in the fourth set, and it just didn't work out," Kiracofe said. "They're doing a lot of different things since we played them. We'll make our adjustments and tackle them."
In the midst of a six-match road trip, Northwestern State has made several adjustments, winning twice in the first three matches of the swing.
NSU picked up its first road sweep of the season Thursday, knocking off Lamar behind an efficient performance from outside hitter
Lauren Agan (10 kills) and the middle blocker tandem of
Glynna Johnson and
Amanda Kunz (18 combined kills, .390 hitting percentage).
In addition to taking care of business Thursday, NSU received some help from Incarnate Word and Stephen F. Austin. UIW took down Southeastern Louisiana while Stephen F. Austin upended Sam Houston State.
Those results jumbled the back end of the Southland Conference standings. With five matches remaining, NSU sits a half-game out of the eighth spot in the eight-team tournament. NSU has played at least two more matches than all but one team ahead of them in the league standings.
However, Kiracofe's focus is on completing a weekend road sweep, which NSU has not done this season.
"We showed a lot of growth (Thursday)," he said. "Now we need to be able to sustain that type of play into the second match of a road-trip weekend."
