LAKE CHARLES – Looking to build upon three wins in its previous four matches, the Northwestern State volleyball team will face Southland Conference foe McNeese on the road Thursday at 7 p.m.

The Lady Demons (8-12, 3-2 SLC) picked up two important wins a week ago, sweeping both Incarnate Word and twice-defending league champion Texas A&M – Corpus Christi. NSU, a top-20 serving team nationally, is building momentum at the right time as it heads into the middle portion of the conference schedule.

"We went in with the scout and knew where we could create some good situations for different attackers," third-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "Both of them, Reagan (Rogers) and Hannah (Brister) took advantage of those opportunities and put the ball away."

Outside hitter Reagan Rogers has been a main contributor to the top-20 ace ranking. Rogers' high-velocity jump serve has resulted in a team-high 24 aces and numerous free attacks for the Lady Demons.

Serving as the team's primary attacker, Rogers also paces the Lady Demons with 212 kills this season. Part of Rogers' uptick in production has resulted from a recent change to a quicker offensive set.

"I think I definitely work better with a faster hit," Rogers said. "That seems to be easier for me and it's making be able to score more, so that's great."

With nine kills on 22 attacks in the previous week of play, middle Blocker Madeline Drake continued to display reliability in situational hitting. Drake's .377 hitting percentage in conference matches ranks third in the conference, and her five errors are the fewest of the top-ten hitting percentage leaders.

"She's (Drake) got a great hitting percentage so far," Kiracofe said. "It really comes down to just who we're playing and the situations that we see ourselves in. We've played some teams early on that have had some great middles, so it just didn't really make sense from a game plan standpoint to get the ball to the middles as much.

"Eventually the defense is going to spread out and start defending your pin attackers, and she's always been there when we needed her (Drake) to step up and put the ball away, and get some points for us in those opportunities."

With enhancements to their offense and defense, the Cowgirls (12-9, 4-3) have already improved upon their record from a season ago and are on pace for one of their best seasons in years. This season, McNeese is in the top third of the conference on both offense and defense.

"McNeese is running a little bit of a different offense than what they have been, and it's been giving some people a lot of trouble," Kiracofe said. "It's going to be an interesting match. It's going to be difficult. It's just something that you're not used to running up against, so that will be a fun match and a very difficult match on Thursday."

This meeting will mark the first time NSU faces a Louisiana school in conference competition. The Lady Demons experienced early in the season the extra effort that Louisiana teams tend to exert in matches with bragging rights attached, going five sets against both UL Monroe and Tulane.

"Absolutely," Kiracofe said when asked if in-state matches meant extra to his team. "Any time you can play an in-state team it matters more to the fans, so it matters more to us. And to be able to have those bragging rights at the end of the season and going into the next season is always a big deal."

Following the McNeese match, the Lady Demons will return to South Louisiana for a Saturday afternoon match at Nicholls.

Updates will be posted live from Thursday's match on Twitter @NSUDemonsVB.