CONWAY, Arkansas – A season ago, the Northwestern State volleyball team did plenty of damage from the service line and ranked among the national leaders in service aces per set.
 
In a matchup with Southland Conference rival Central Arkansas on Tuesday night, the Lady Demons used another flurry of aces to set the tone for a 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-22) sweep of the Sugar Bears at the Farris Center.
 
"We always believe in our serving," second-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "We don't always expect aces but feel we can break up what opponents want to do offensively. It worked out tonight that we ended up with those aces, which came from everyone being consistent with how we were attacking each rotation."
 
Freshman Megan Lohmiller had three of NSU's season-high 10 aces, helping the Lady Demons improve to 8-10 overall and 3-0 in conference play. By sweeping a trio of road matches to start league play, Northwestern State secured its first 3-0 conference start since 2013 and won its first three conference road matches for the first time in program history.
 
Channing Burleson, Alexis Warren and Natalie Jaeger added two aces each. Jaeger's pair gave her 126 for her career, moving her past former teammate Mackenzie Neely for fifth place on NSU's career chart.
 
While NSU benefited from its strong serving performance, it shined in serve receive as well, keeping Central Arkansas (8-8, 2-2) without an ace.
 
Offensively, Northwestern State's balance kept UCA's powerful blocking duo of Megan Nash and Samantha Anderson from dominating the match.
 
Thanks to a combined 15 kills and just two errors from middle blockers Kourtney Seaton and Madeline Drake, Northwestern State hit .267 for the match.
 
"UCA is a great blocking team, and we felt our middle blockers needed to score to create some splits for our pin hitters," Kiracofe said. "Both Madeline and Kourtney got on a roll and did a great job of taking smart swings when UCA started to collapse in on them."
 
Seaton bookended the match with the night's first kill and with the match clincher, part of an eight-kill, .636 hitting percentage night for the freshman. Drake added seven kills and hit .462 as every NSU player who took a swing hit a positive percentage.
 
Never was the Lady Demons' offensive efficiency better than in the second set when they connected on 12 kills in 20 attempts with only one error. The .550 hitting percentage helped NSU build as much as a 12-point lead and quieted the home crowd.
 
With UCA's focus turned toward Seaton and Drake, outside hitter Alexis Warren knocked down a match-high 11 kills while Lauren Agan added eight, including the clinching point of the opening set, as Northwestern State notched its second three-match win streak of the season.  
 
"Overall, we had another good offensive night, which always starts with good passing by the backcourt," said Kiracofe, whose team holds a half-game lead over three teams (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Stephen F. Austin and Houston Baptist) in the conference standings.
 
"Our middle blockers were efficient, which makes it easier on our lefts, and then when it was time for Lauren and Alexis to take difficult swings, they did really smart things with what was given to them."
 
Northwestern State returns to action Thursday at 7 p.m. when it hosts defending Southland Conference regular-season and tournament champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.