TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Northwestern State volleyball team was unable to carry the momentum from Tuesday's five-set victory against UL Lafayette with it on the road, dropping a pair of matches at the Bama Bash on Friday.
 
Northwestern State suffered sweeps at the hands of Alabama (25-18, 25-15, 25-21) and Southern Mississippi (25-23, 25-15, 25-16) in the opening day of the two-day event hosted by Alabama.
 
In the nightcap, NSU fell behind early in the first set against Southern Miss before rallying to tie the set at 14 and set up a back-and-forth opening set that ended with USM hanging on for a 25-23 victory.
 
"Southern Miss is a smart team that executes their strengths very well," first-year coach Sean Kiracofe said. "While I believe we match up with them physically, Southern Miss was able to keep us off balance for the majority of the match. We were not able to find any consistency to build off of to get back into the match. Having a home crowd helped us have a comfort level to be able to make changes against ULL, so now we need to be able to figure that out on the road."
 
Northwestern State (2-4) kept the momentum going early in the second set, leading 4-3 when Caiti O'Connell delivered a kill. The Golden Eagles, however, rallied with a 6-0 run to take control of the set and eventually stretched their lead to 16-8 before Northwestern State responded with a 4-0 run.
 
The four-point margin that resulted from the push was as close as NSU came in the middle set, as Southern Mississippi (6-0) slowly pulled away to close out the set.
 
In the final set, USM broke quickly, scoring the first four points, leading to an NSU timeout. Northwestern State regained some momentum during the break and scored three of the next four points before Southern Miss responded with a 4-0 run to regain control.  
 
Lauren Agan paced the NSU offense with nine kills while freshman Channing Burleson led the way defensively with 11 digs.
 
In NSU's Friday opener, Kat Hutson and Brittany Thomas each had 11 kills as Alabama cruised to the sweep.
 
Down 2-0 in the match and trailing 23-16 in the third set, Northwestern State made a late rally with Madison Walford serving before Alabama (2-2) put the match away.
 
Walford stepped to the service line with NSU down 23-17 and sparked a quick 3-0 run that cut Alabama's lead to three before a Leah Lawrence kill helped end the run.
 
A Hutson service error kept the match alive before Thomas ended it with a kill.
 
"Alabama is a very physical team that finished fifth in a strong SEC last year," Kiracofe said. "We competed well for parts of each set, but they have been to the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons, so they know how to close out matches."
 
As she did Friday afternoon, Agan led Northwestern State's offense with nine kills while Caiti O'Connell added six as NSU posted a .141 team hitting percentage. Amanda Kunz had four total blocks to lead an NSU defense that posted six total blocks.
 
Northwestern State finishes tournament action Saturday at 11 a.m. against College of Charleston.