NACOGDOCHES, Texas – For most of Tuesday night's Southland Conference volleyball match, Northwestern State stood toe-to-toe with Stephen F. Austin.
 
The Lady Demons, however, often were unable to sustain enough long point-scoring runs to cool off the streaking Ladyjacks, who won their 12^th straight match with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-19) victory at Shelton Gym.

"The stats were very close to identical after sets 1 and 2 and the first half of set 3," fourth-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "We're on par with them and just uncharacteristically high error in a few areas. There wasn't much that we can't go back and adjust for the next match up or two down the road." 
 
Despite staying statistically close to the Ladyjacks (15-2, 2-0), the Lady Demons (5-7, 1-1) were unable to create much separation.  While each set started with the teams keeping things within a one- to three-point window, Northwestern State was unable to build more than a three-point lead at any time during the match.
 
That advantage came at 5-2 in the final set before Stephen F. Austin answered with a 13-5 push that gave the Ladyjacks enough cushion to complete the sweep.
 
While Northwestern State was unable to string together scoring runs, Stephen F. Austin came up with one or two mini-runs in each set to make a difference. It was a 9-3 surge in the first set that gave SFA a 20-12 lead and allowed it to keep at least a four-point edge the rest of the set.
 
In the third, SFA rattled off five straight points after Hannah Brister's kill tied the set at 10.
 
Reagan Rogers paced Northwestern State's offense with nine kills while Alexis Warren added eight. Defensively, Madeline Drake had six total blocks (1 solo, 5 assists) while Warren added five (1 solo, 4 assists).
 
Channing Burleson dug a match-high 13 attacks for Northwestern State. Peyton Redmond led Stephen F. Austin with a match-high 12 kills while Makenzee Hanna added 10.
 
Northwestern State put together its best offensive set in the second, committing only one error against the conference's No. 2 defense in terms of opponents' hitting percentage. NSU hit .263 in the middle set but was held to a .150 mark overall.
 
"We did a lot of things well and, in the long run, this match was simply testing the waters for us," Kiracofe said.

Northwestern State continues its three-match road trip Thursday night at New Orleans. First serve is set for 6 p.m. in the Crescent City.