CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Northwestern State volleyball team has a chance against Houston Baptist on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the opening round of the Southland Conference Tournament to add to the similarities of the 2014 team that won the league championship.

In 2014, the Lady Demons entered the tournament as the fifth seed with a 10-6 conference record, closing the season on a two-match win streak. That team went on to sweep Sam Houston State in the first round, take down the No. 1 seed, Stephen F. Austin, in the second round and finish off Central Arkansas 3-0 in the championship match to clinch NSU's first SLC Tournament championship in school history.

This season, the Lady Demons (15-16, 10-6) closed the season on a two-match winning streak, sweeping both Nicholls and McNeese at home to clinch the No. 5 seed heading into the conference tournament.

Northwestern State will have to go through a difficult gauntlet to see a repeat of 2014. The Lady Demons face Houston Baptist in the first round, and with a win would go on to face either first-seed Stephen F. Austin or the eighth-seeded Abilene Christian – all teams NSU failed to get a win against in the regular season.

"We played really well against them (HBU) earlier in the season," third-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "It's not going to be an easy match. They've got a lot of talent. I feel like we match up with them well, and our girls feel the same way. It really just comes down to stepping up in the biggest moments.

The Lady Demons' most productive players – outside hitter Reagan Rogers, libero Channing Burleson and freshman Hannah Brister – finished the season on a tear, with Rogers and Burleson sweeping player of the week honors in the final week of the season, while earning two end-of-season individual awards (Libero of the Year and Freshman of the Year) and having two named to the all-conference first team.

Rogers, the SLC's kills leader and one of NSU's first team selections, had 30 kills while hitting .225 through six sets in the final two matches. She also dug 15 attacks against Nicholls, recording her 12^th double-double of the season.

Rogers eyes a repeat individual performance against the Huskies on Friday. In two matches against HBU this season, she put down a career-high 23 kills in five sets on Oct. 17 and 18 kills in four sets on Nov. 4. Rogers also recorded her first 20-20 match of her career in the first meeting with 21 digs.

"We're definitely ready to beat them (HBU)," Rogers said. "We match up really well against them. It's the first game of the conference tournament. Obviously we want to beat them. We're going to be really focused on the game and getting revenge."

Channing Burleson, the league's Libero of the Year, averaged 7.17 digs per set in the final week. She dug 26 attacks against Nicholls – the most among her peers in a three-set conference match this season.

"We always say it's hard to beat somebody three times," Burleson said. "So we have that in the back of our minds. We know that we can beat them (HBU). It was really close when we played them at our place, and we didn't play as well as we could have when we played them at their home, but we know we can do it. That's our motivation going into Friday."

Burleson also put together a career performance against Houston Baptist, digging 32 balls. That was her first of two 32-dig matches and one of 12 matches with 20-plus digs. Burleson finished the regular season with 560 digs – 12 shy of tying herself for third-most in NSU single season history.

Middle blocker Madeline Drake is another Lady Demon who hopes for another strong performance against Houston Baptist. Drake blocked a season-high eight shots and recorded nine kills, tying her fourth-highest output of the season in the first meeting against the Huskies.

"We're really excited to have a chance to get revenge on HBU in the first round," Drake said. "We're all really excited to have the opportunity to go to the conference tournament. As a team, we have a lot more confidence this season. We know we can win. We know we're going to win. We're definitely bringing in some extra confidence and motivation this time."
 

The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the tournament will be streamed live on the Southland Conference Digital Network. Go to Southland.org/live or download the league's app, available for phones, tablets, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku.

The championship round will be an exclusive presentation of ESPN3, available via WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app.