HAMMOND – The Northwestern State volleyball team has won six of its previous seven matches after its sweep of Southeastern Louisiana 3-0 (25-21, 25-14, 25-21) in Southland Conference action Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Demons (12-13, 7-3) have now swept their opponents three times in the seven-match stretch.
With six matches remaining, third-year head coach
Sean Kiracofe has already matched his career regular season and conference win totals set a year ago. NSU's sweep of the Lions is also Kiracofe's first win over SLU.
"This was a really good sweep for us," Kiracofe said. "In the first and third set, SLU really made us earn it, and I was happy to see we made defensive adjustments as they started doing different things to move the ball around."
Southeastern kept the opening set competitive, tying the score at 17 before the Lady Demons made a late push to take a 1-0 lead with a 25-21 finish.
In the third set, the Lions fell behind early, but cut a 19-10 deficit to 22-19. Outside hitter
Reagan Rogers put in a pair of kills to make it 24-21, and middle blocker
Madeline Drake clinched the match with another.
Rogers continued her dominant streak of hitting, knocking down a match-high 17 kills while hitting .325. With 23.5 points in the match, Rogers contributed 75.5 points in three matches this week. Along with 63 kills, she rounded out her week with nine aces and five total blocks.
"Reagan has had a great year and an even better run in the last few matches," Kiracofe said. "Just as important as the points she's scoring has been her consistency with passing and defense."
Drake has consistently been clutch at the end of sets in the Lady Demons 6-1 conference run. Against New Orleans on Thursday and Southeastern on Saturday, Drake clinched four sets, including both match-winners by way of three block assists and the kill in the third set against Southeastern.
"Drake has been a really important part of the last five or six matches. She's found ways to bring value to the court in a number of different ways and always seems to find a way to be involved in the last few points of a set."
Middle blocker
Kourtney Seaton has seen an uptick in offensive usage in the previous pair of matches, posting nine kills on 15 attacks Saturday.
"Like I said going into this match, we want to spread out our offense and try to add some new things going into the end of the year," Kiracofe said.
The Lady Demons return home for their next action, facing Sam Houston State on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and Abilene Christian on Saturday at 1 p.m. Attendance to both matches is free and updates will be posted on Twitter @NSUDemonsVB.
