NATCHITOCHES – Faced with its second five-set match in three days, the Northwestern State volleyball team penned a much happier ending on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Lady Demons made good on the promises they made to themselves, and in turn gave their five-player senior class a happy memory with a 3-2 (25-18, 19-25, 25-11, 22-25, 15-7) victory against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Prather Coliseum.


"It's something we've battled all year, so I'm really happy to get a five-set win here at the end of conference," fourth-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "That's going to be good for us to have fresh in our minds entering the conference tournament. Some points matter more than others, and I thought coming from the match (Thursday) against HBU where those went against us, having that fresh in our memory helped the girls focus in and produce better in those spots."
 
Northwestern State (10-13, 6-7 Southland Conference) produced perhaps its best all-around set of the season in the third set, using an early 8-0 run to build an early lead and cruise to the double-figure victory in the set.
 
Senior outside hitter Reagan Rogers highlighted the early surge with four straight aces that allowed the lead to balloon to 8-1.
 
"After Thursday, we decided as a team that we weren't going to let that happen again," said Rogers, who delivered 12 kills while committing only one error on 18 swings. "We came out with extra energy and extra fire."
 
Rogers' four consecutive aces lit up the Prather Coliseum atmosphere and put Northwestern State in position to clinch the match in four sets. However, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (8-19, 7-7) extended its pattern of playing well in even-numbered sets.
 
The Islanders hit .297 in the fourth set and held off a late Lady Demons rally to force the decisive fifth set.
 
From there, the pendulum of momentum again swung to Northwestern State, starting with a set-opening block by Rogers and Kourtney Seaton.
 
After a back-and-forth start through the first seven points that saw the Lady Demons take a 4-3 lead, NSU rattled off six straight points – five of which came with Rogers serving.
 
Rogers and Brister had the lone kills in the run as the Islanders committed four straight attack errors after Sam Dumity's kill sliced the lead to 4-3.
 
A timeout seemed to revive Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as the Islanders scored three straight points before Alexis Warren delivered a kill and Northwestern State's 10^th service ace of the match to re-establish a six-point lead.
 
"At that point (with a 10-3 lead), we're thinking we're not losing," said sophomore outside hitter Hannah Brister, who led Northwestern State with 19 kills and has 42 kills in her past two matches. "We had our foot on the gas and were fighting for every point."
 
Brister and Rogers were the only Lady Demons to reach double figures in kills but Warren added nine and setter Skylar Besch added six on 10 swings.
 
Warren and Channing Burleson each had 17 digs, helping to hold the Islanders to a .168 hitting percentage.
 
Northwestern State's win, coupled with Incarnate Word's win against McNeese, moved NSU into a tie with the Cowgirls for seventh place in the conference standings. Both teams have three matches this week and will face each other on Thursday in Lake Charles.
 
"We knew we needed to win this game to do what we want to do in the conference tournament," said Drake, who had four block assists as NSU totaled 10 blocks as a team. "We all mentally locked in and made a decision we weren't going to lose."
 
The Lady Demons return to action Tuesday when they host Southeastern Louisiana at 5:30 p.m. in the first half of the "Bump, Set and Slam" doubleheader with the NSU men's basketball team.