LAFAYETTE – The Northwestern State volleyball team's busiest stretch of the season began with a familiar refrain – a five-set match against UL Lafayette on Tuesday night.
 
The Lady Demons enjoyed working overtime, grabbing a 3-2 (15-25, 25-19, 25-23, 20-25, 15-9) victory against the Cajuns at Earl K. Long Gym. It marked the second straight season Northwestern State (1-3) has knocked off UL Lafayette in five sets.
 
"This was a great win for us," said second-year head coach Sean Kiracofe, whose team will play six matches in five days. "Winning five sets on the road is always hard to do. We got a couple of five-set wins last year, but they were at home. To get one on the road will go a long way when we're in this situation both in preseason and in conference."
 
After spotting the Cajuns (0-4) the first nine points of the match, Northwestern State entered comeback mode on a couple of occasions.
 
NSU rallied to take the second set, 25-20, and was down 23-19 in the third set before ripping off the final six points to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
Lauren Agan paced Northwestern State with 17 kills, hitting .300 in the process. Freshman Alexis Warren equaled Agan's output, delivering the final three kills of the match. Warren and Agan tied for top scoring honors, each accounting for 18.5 points.
 
"They're an in-state school, so we always want to go out and beat them," Agan said. "Going out with a five-set win is a good for us. We have a really big weekend ahead of us, so starting out with a win was great."
 
The start wasn't what the Lady Demons hoped for as UL Lafayette limited NSU to a -.135 hitting percentage in the opening set.
 
After that shaky first set, NSU found its offensive group and hit .204 the rest of the way.
 
Warren typified the NSU effort. In the first set, the Cypress, Texas, product had six errors on 12 total attacks without a kill. She responded by averaging better than four kills per set the rest of the way, committing just seven errors in the final four sets.
 
In addition to collecting the final three kills of the match, Warren had another personal 3-0 run in the third set, helping the Lady Demons overcome a four-point deficit before mounting their six-point rally.
 
"After I had those errors, I felt more comfortable after my team told me, 'You've got this. Keep swinging away,'" Warren said. "They believed in me, and it comforted me. I started looking at the block and not trying to place it where the defense wasn't."
 
While Agan and Warren paced the offense, Channing Burleson continued her successful conversion to libero, notching a match-high 24 digs. Natalie Jaeger added 40 assists and 15 digs for her third straight double-double.
 
"We know that right now serve receive and defense is our strength," Kiracofe said. "I knew that was going to come back around eventually. They trusted themselves and got a little comfortable and it paid off for us."
 
Northwestern State returns to action Wednesday when it starts its 2016 home slate with a 6:30 p.m. matchup against ULM on "1K Day" at Prather Coliseum.