CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The No. 5 seed Northwestern State volleyball team fell short of redeeming itself in the opening round of the Southland Conference Tournament against fourth-seeded Houston Baptist on Friday afternoon.
The Lady Demons (15-17, 10-6) entered the match with hopes of overcoming two close regular-season losses to the Huskies (21-9, 11-5) but dropped the contest in straight sets 3-0 (27-25, 25-21, 25-21).
In a tight opening set, neither team built more than a three-point lead. The Lady Demons looked to have just enough momentum to take the set after coming back from a 24-22 deficit to take the lead 25-24, but like every other time in the set, the lead was erased. Jessica Wooten came up big for the Huskies in their final push of the set, putting down a kill and a block assist to secure the set.
In the second set, the Lady Demons were able to build a 8-4 lead, thanks to five HBU errors and two points (one kill and one ace) from outside hitter Reagan Rogers. Once again, the Huskies came back to tie the set at 9. Following the 9-9 tie, the set was tied seven more times. HBU broke away from a late 21-21 tie to take the set with two kills, an NSU hitting error and a block.
In the final set, the Lady Demons lagged behind 13-8 early, but rattled off five straight points to tie the set. Following another tie at 16, the Huskies took the lead and never looked back, clinching the win with a 9-5 run.
Rogers, one of NSU's two first team all-conference selections, performed as well on Friday as she did at any point all season, posting a match-high 17 kills, with eight in the first set alone. This was her fifth match this year in which she recorded 17 kills in just three sets. Only once did she have a match that she posted a better kills per set, when she put down 23 kills in four sets at Southeastern Louisiana.
Rogers finished the season with the third-most kills (427) in NSU single-season history, supplanting current assistant coach and one of the Lady Demons' all-time greats in
Stacey DiFrancesco.
SLC Libero of the Year Channing Burleson, NSU's other first team all-conference selection, had a match to remember as well, digging 13 attacks with most coming in acrobatic fashion. She now owns the second spot in career digs in NSU record books at 1,386. Burleson also jumped herself for third on the single-season digs list with 573. She posted a mirror-like year from a season ago, when she had 572 digs.
There is a lot for Lady Demons fans to look forward two next season. All starters will return, including the aforementioned all-conference members as well as SLC Freshman of the Year Hannah Brister.
Brister struggled against the Huskies (4 kills, .000 hitting percentage), but was second on the team this season with 269 kills while hitting .222.
The Lady Demons' 15 regular season wins and 10 conference wins both mark the highest total under third-year head coach
Sean Kiracofe. They are also the highest totals since NSU won the SLC Tournament championship in Prather Coliseum in 2014. Northwestern State hope for a repeat of 2014 as it hosts to the 2018 conference tournament.
