TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – The Northwestern State volleyball team endured its toughest offensive match of the season Saturday in the finale of the Bama Bash.
 
The Lady Demons were swept by Southern Miss, 3-0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-11), hitting a season-worst -.070 as they dropped their second of three matches at the tournament.
 
Back-to-back kills from Alexis Warren in the first set tied things at 6-6 before Southern Miss (8-3) took control of the opening set with a 10-1 run.
 
The second set was more of the same. NSU (5-7) grabbed the first point of the set on a Lauren Agan kill before the Golden Eagles took off on a 5-0 run. The Lady Demons pulled within 8-5 on a Madeline Drake kill only to see Southern Miss take nine of the next 11 points.
 
In the third set, NSU took the first point on a Victoria Harris kill before USM put together a 10-2 run, setting the tone for the sweep.
 
"Overall there were some great highlights on the weekend with a good showing against Alabama and once again being able to lean from a slow start against Lehigh," second-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "Southern Miss was really our first disappointing match of the year where we struggled to get anything going. Reagan (Rogers), Victoria and Kathryn (Wristen) came off the bench and played well, but it was not enough."
 
Channing Burleson paced the NSU defense with 19 digs, earning all-tournament honors after averaging better than five digs per set across the three matches.
 
"Channing was consistently good for us again, but we couldn't find a way to stop what (Southern Miss) wanted to do on offense as a team," Kiracofe said.
 
Northwestern State returns to action Friday at 3 p.m. when it faces Louisiana Tech in its opening match of the Tulsa Volleyball Invitational.