TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Slow starts proved to be too much to overcome for the Northwestern State volleyball team on Saturday.
 
NSU wrapped up its stay at the Bama Bash by falling 3-1 to College of Charleston in Foster Auditorium on the campus of the University of Alabama.
 
"A slow start in set one doesn't bother me as long as we use it as a chance to learn how we want to approach the rest of the match," first-year coach Sean Kiracofe said. "The team is starting to buy into the thought process."
 
Never was that more apparent than in Saturday's third set.
 
After dropping the first two sets (25-20, 25-22), NSU (2-5) watched the Cougars score the first five points of the third set and build six-point leads twice in the set.
 
Trailing 13-8, NSU put together a 5-1 run capped by consecutive Lauren Agan kills to pull within one and swing the momentum to the Northwestern State side.
 
Charleston rebuilt a four-point lead after a timeout, but Northwestern State put together a 6-2 surge late in the set to take a 24-22 lead before Charleston pulled within one on an NSU error.
 
Given a chance to end the set, Reagan Rogers delivered one of her career-best 10 kills to keep NSU alive with a 25-23 third-set victory.
 
In the final set, Charleston raced out to an 8-3 lead and pushed the lead to six before NSU put together a surge behind a pair of aces from Natalie Jaeger that cut the Cougars lead to 16-14.
 
NSU cut the lead to three on one other occasion late in the set but was unable to overcome a Charleston offense that hit .679 in the fourth set, en route to a 25-19 victory in the clincher.
 
Rogers was one of three NSU plaeyrs to record double-figure kills, joining Caiti O'Connell (11) and Lauren Agan (10). Agan finished wit her second double-double of the season, chipping in 11 digs as part of three NSU players who reached double figures in that category.
 
"Reagan and Caiti had a great match and scored a lot of points for us with some of those being in difficult situations," Kiracofe said. "I'm proud of how they both played, but they owe a thank you to our middles – Amanda (Kunz) and Glynna (Johnson) – for opening things up for them. Our focus was to get the middles more involved in the offense because they had been the most consistent part of our offense when other things weren't working. When you get your middles going, it makes it easier for everyone to score."
 
In addition to Agan, Bailey Martin (15) and Channing Burleson (13) topped 10 digs as well.
 
Northwestern State returns to action Friday at 7 p.m. when they face host Arkansas on the first day of the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. NSU will face Texas-Arlington and Southeast Missouri State next Saturday on the final day of the two-day tournament.