NACOGDOCHES, Texas – In its first meeting with Stephen F. Austin this season, Northwestern State played its most complete volleyball match of the season.
 
In Saturday's rematch, NSU was unable to duplicate that effort, falling to the Ladyjacks 3-0 at Shelton Gymnasium.
 
"Our ball control in serve receive has been improving all season and was consistently good when we played SFA the first time," first-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "Today it was just a little off."
 
NSU (6-21, 4-10 Southland Conference) hit .458 in the first set but saw SFA (19-12, 10-4) hit .462 in the opener.
 
The Ladyjacks maintained their offensive efficiency throughout, hitting .394 in the match. Northwestern State finished with a .198 hitting percentage.
 
Northwestern State's middle blocker tandem of Glynna Johnson and Amanda Kunz led the way offensively as they have for much of the season.
 
Each delivered eight kills with Kunz hitting .583 and Johnson tallying a .438 hitting percentage. Senior Caiti O'Connell added seven kills while hitting .417.
 
"When we were in system, all of our attackers were hitting really well, especially our middles," Kiracofe said. "Some of our attackers were trying to push too hard to make something happen when we were out of system and, unfortunately, those balls ended up as unforced errors."
 
Northwestern State returns home Thursday to face Incarnate Word and Saturday against Abilene Christian to close out the regular season.