Box Score HUNTSVILLE, Texas – The early part of Northwestern State volleyball team's six-match Southland Conference road trip featured one of the team's best hitting percentages of the season.
 
As the second half of the road swing arrived Saturday, it did so with NSU's lowest hitting percentage of conference play. Northwestern State hit just .017, allowing Sam Houston State to come away with a 25-21, 25-13, 25-23 sweep.
 
NSU (6-19, 4-8) had four players record negative hitting percentages but enjoyed a solid performance from middle blocker Amanda Kunz, who recorded nine kills for the second straight match.
 
"Amanda had another solid match," first-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "In the matches leading up to today, a lot of that had to do with Lauren (Agan's) production opening up the defense for Amanda to take advantage of. Today, more sets were forced to Amanda because of the matchups and the fact swe were struggling on the outside for the first two sets. Amanda's kills this afternoon were much more difficult to earn, so it was a good performance."
 
In the early going, Sam Houston State (11-13, 5-5) limited Northwestern State to hitting percentages of .093 and .036 in building their 2-0 lead. By comparison, Sam Houston State hit .184 in the first set and .385 in the second as it took control of the match.
 
The Bearkats spread out their offense with Jordyn Vaughn, Shelby Genung and Brooke White all collecting nine kills.
 
In the final set, Sam Houston State built a pair of four-point leads (18-14 and 21-17) before Northwestern State made a late push, eventually tying the final set at 22 on a service ace by Reagan Rogers.
 
After Kunz' kill evened things at 23, Sam Houston State completed the season sweep by taking advantage of an NSU attack error and clinching it on a Taylor Cunningham kill.
 
Agan finished with seven kills for Northwestern State, which received a pair of double-figure dig matches from Bailey Martin (12) and Agan (10).
 
Northwestern State returns to action Thursday night at Central Arkansas in a rematch of the 2014 Southland Conference Tournament championship match. First serve in Conway, Arkansas, is set for 7 p.m.