OXFORD, Miss. – A day after giving Sean Kiracofe his first win as the Northwestern State volleyball coach, NSU dropped a pair of matches at the Mangolia Invitational hosted by Ole Miss on Saturday.
 
NSU fell to Oral Roberts, 3-1, Saturday morning then dropped a 3-0 decision to host Ole Miss in Saturday night's tournament finale.
 
In both matches, Northwestern State (1-2) played its best volleyball in the second set, shaking off slow first-set starts.
 
Against Ole Miss, NSU dropped the first set, 25-19, before taking a 22-19 lead late in the second set. The Rebels rallied for a 25-23 second-set victory and clinched the match and a perfect 3-0 run through the Magnolia Invitational with a 25-16 third-set victory.
 
"Just like the previous match, we are learning how to make in-match changes and take advantage of matchups," Kiracofe said. "Now that we are slowly getting better at making those first adjustments, we now need to be able to react to how teams counter. We had a matchup that worked for us in Set 2 tonight that we lost in Set 3.
 
"That's the fun part for coaches at least. Our passers made improvements from the match this morning, but every team attacks you differently, so there is still room to improve."
 
Lauren Agan led Northwestern State with nine kills, while Amanda Kunz hit .545, collecting six kills on 11 attacks.
 
Agan was selected to the all-tournament team after collecting 32 kills (2.91 per set) and 19 digs in the three matches. Agan added three service aces during the weekend.
 
"We know that Lauren is going to get big kills that are impressive, but I was really proud of her play defensively and with her smart choices at the net," Kiracofe said. "She's starting what she can do as an outside (hitter)."
 
Nakeyta Clair paced Ole Miss' offense with a match-high 13 kills.
 
In its Saturday opener, Northwestern State looked like it would follow the script set forth in a season-opening win against Tennessee State.
 
Oral Roberts, however, had other ideas. After splitting the first two sets with the Golden Eagles, Northwestern State dropped the final two and suffered its first loss of the year, falling 3-1 to Oral Roberts on Saturday in the Magnolia Invitational hosted by Ole Miss.
 
After dropping the first set, 25-12, NSU (1-1) put together its best offensive set of the match, hitting .344 and scoring a 25-20 victory that evened things at one set each.
 
Agan led the way offensively with six kills in the set, while NSU's defense limited ORU (1-1) to a .079 hitting percentage.
 
Oral Roberts turned things around in the third and fourth sets, holding NSU to a .000 hitting percentage in each of the final two sets en route to clinching the win with 25-13 and 25-14 decisions.
 
"We struggled with ball control in some specific areas, which gives us great information to work with as a coaching staff for practice next week,"Kiracofe said. "We are still learning as a team how to make in-match adjustments and to consistently execute them.
 
"Set two shows how we can play when we execute those adjustments, but consistency is something that will come with time."
 
NSU took control of the second set after a timeout. Trailing 12-9 before the timeout, Northwestern State responded with an 8-1 run out of the break, highlighted by a pair of Glynna Johnson kills and a tandem block by Johnson and Reagan Rogers.
 
NSU never trailed by less than three the rest of the set, closing it out with consecutive kills from Caiti O'Connell and Rogers.
 
Agan paced the NSU offense with 12 kills, while Bailey Martin's 15 digs led the NSU defense.
 
Laura Milos delivered 23 kills and had a .444 hitting percentage to lead Oral Roberts.
 
Northwestern State returns to action Tuesday night when it hosts UL Lafayette at 7 in Prather Coliseum.