Box Score SAN ANTONIO, Texas – With his Northwestern State volleyball team down two sets to none Saturday, first-year head coach Sean Kiracofe did not have much to say to his team.
 
For the next two-plus sets, the strong, mostly silent treatment worked.
 
Northwestern State battled back from that two-set deficit to force a decisive fifth set against Incarnate Word before falling 3-2.
 
"The first two sets were not pretty at all," Kiracofe said. "I challenged them to have some pride between two and three. It wasn't an adjustment. It wasn't a matchup. It was executing and wanting to win and having some pride. They did a great job adjusting to that and putting themselves in position to win, two points away."
 
UIW (3-9, 1-2) took the first two sets, 25-23 and 25-17, taking advantage of NSU's struggles to execute. Northwestern State hit .071 and .030 in the first two sets, collecting 15 kills against 12 attack errors.
 
Buoyed by an effervescent Northwestern State soccer team that threatened to turn the Convocation Center into Prather Coliseum Southwest, NSU rallied to squeeze out a 25-23 third-set victory in which it hit .135 as a team.
 
Kiracofe made a lineup switch, putting as many as four freshmen on the floor and stacking middle blocker after middle blocker on the court.
 
Doing so allowed Northwestern State to slow UIW outside hitter Autumn Lockley (18 kills) and Bryaunea Hall (10 kills) in the third and fourth sets. NSU collected 12 total blocks, its second-highest total of the season trailing the 15 NSU posted against Portland State on Sept. 18.
 
"They did a great job stopping and slowing down their offense," Kiracofe said. "(Lockley) had a great match. She swung really well, but we made adjustments to have a bigger block out there on the right. We did a good job slowing her down. It's good to know we have those adjustments on the bench."
 
The back-and-forth fifth set came down to a pair of late UIW service aces that gave the Cardinals a 14-11 lead. NSU responded again with a Channing Burleson kill and a UIW attack error to pull within 14-13.
 
Hall then tipped down a kill to end the match and hand NSU its third straight conference defeat.
 
Lauren Agan led the NSU offense with 14 kills while Glynna Johnson added nine kills (.500 hitting percentage) and six block assists. Amanda Kunz had six total blocks while Bailey Martin (16) and Burleson (14) each tallied double-figure dig totals.
 
Northwestern State heads home to begin a three-match homestand on Thursday when it hosts Houston Baptist at 7 p.m. in Prather Coliseum. That match is the start of three home Southland Conference matches in six days for NSU, which also hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Stephen F. Austin during the homestand.