NATCHITOCHES – With several members of the 2014 Southland Conference Tournament championship team in attendance, the Northwestern State volleyball team put itself in position for a stirring upset Saturday morning against league-leading Stephen F. Austin.
 
After a first-set Lady Demons victory, however, the visiting Ladyjacks recovered and showed why they own a share of the nation's longest winning streak, handing NSU a 3-1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-15, 27-25) defeat on Reunion Day at Prather Coliseum.
 
"We were very consistent, but there are still areas we could have done a better job in," fourth-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "We had a couple silly errors here and there, but we minimized them compared to previous matches, which put us in a position to win."
 
Northwestern State (6-10, 2-4 Southland) limited the visiting Ladyjacks (19-2, 6-0) to an .068 hitting percentage in the opening set while Reagan Rogers and Alexis Warren combined for 10 kills in the first stanza.
 
The teams exchanged one long rally after another early before Northwestern State gathered itself and delivered the final five points of the set. Rogers had two kills in the run while Skylar Besch and Darria Williams added one each before Warren delivered an ace to seal the set.
 
That momentum carried into the second set as NSU jumped to a 4-1 lead. The lead dissipated quickly and the teams settled into a back-and-forth affair. The Ladyjacks were able to swing the set with a 5-0 run that erased NSU's 17-14 lead and put the Lady Demons on their heels.
 
After Rogers knocked down a kill to cut the lead to 21-20, SFA responded with a 4-0 run, evening the match on Danae Daron's kill off a free ball.
 
The third set stood out as an outlier in Saturday's match with SFA hitting a match-high .312 in the set, committing only one error and cruising to the 10-point win.
 
NSU bounced back and took a 17-14 lead in the fourth set before Stephen F. Austin opened up its largest lead of the set at 23-19 on a Daron kill.
 
A service error put the Lady Demons on serve and Rogers responded by serving up a 4-0 run that included a big block from Brooke Wood and Darria Williams, another Warren kill and a Wood kill that snapped a 23-all tie.
 
A service error kept the Lady Demons from having a chance to end the set in regulation. Williams added a kill after two straight SFA points to tie things at 25 before Makenzee Hanna had a kill and the duo of Haley Coleman and Anyia Williams combined on a match-sealing block to give the Ladyjacks their 16^th straight win, tied with Pittsburgh for the longest active streak in the country.
 
"We never really made that push to get them into sets four and five at their place, but we were comfortable with what we were doing over there," Kiracofe said. "It paid off today. Being in Prather, we put ourselves in position to take it to five and win the match."
 
Warren (15 kills, 19 digs) and Rogers (match-high 17 kills, 22 digs) posted two of NSU's three double-doubles in the match as the Lady Demons tallied 85 digs, their top number in conference play.
 
"When Lex can do that, we can be really successful," Kiracofe said. "It's a matter of her being patient and scoring when she can and being smart when you're in a bad situation. She did a really good job of that."
 
Skylar Besch added 35 assists and 10 digs for her second career double-double.
 
Coleman was the lone Ladyjack to post double-figure kills with 13, but Hanna and Daron combined for 15 kills against one error, hitting a combined .424.
 
Northwestern State continues its four-match homestand Thursday night when it hosts McNeese. First serve is set for 6 p.m. for NSU's annual Fork Cancer match.