NEW ORLEANS – Errors told the tale of Thursday night's Southland Conference volleyball match between Northwestern State and New Orleans.
 
In all but one of the five sets, the team that committed the most offensive and service errors came up short. In the decisive fifth set, it was the homestanding Privateers who took advantage, closing out a 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 25-18, 16-25, 15-13) victory against the Lady Demons at the Human Performance Center.
 
"It's pretty clear that we are making too many errors right now, but the vast majority of those are within our control," fourth-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "That is both a good and a bad thing, because they could be gone tomorrow or take a little while to work through."
 
Northwestern State (5-8, 1-2) committed a season-high 20 service errors, doubling the Privateers' total. The Lady Demons' 28 attack errors were their second-highest total, trailing only the 29 against Oral Roberts on Sept. 7.
 
Despite scuffling offensively, the Lady Demons were able to extend the match to a fifth set by finding their best offensive selves at the right time. After trailing by as many as 12 in the third set, NSU cut the lead to five, giving it some momentum entering the fourth set.
 
After hitting a combined .120 in the first three sets, Northwestern State committed just two attack errors on 32 swings in the fourth set, which led to a 25-16 victory that extended the match to the fifth set.
 
"The fourth set started well and allowed us to feel comfortable, but I think you can throw that set out as an outlier," Kiracofe said.
 
Reagan Rogers and Hannah Brister each had four kills in the set with Brister doing so on 11 error-free attacks. Rogers finished with a match-high 17 kills while Brister added 16, hitting a robust .324.
 
Madeline Drake (10 kills, .391 hitting percentage) gave Northwestern State its third double-figure kill performance.
 
Brister continued her strong play in the final set, delivering six of NSU's 10 kills while hitting .556.  With NSU trailing 13-10 in the final set, Brister connected on consecutive kills to force a Privateers (9-9, 3-1) timeout.  
 
After UNO regained a two-point advantage, Drake kept the match alive with a kill before a Brianna Vega kill clinched the match for the Privateers, who have won two straight.
 
The Lady Demons recorded 10 blocks, marking the third straight match they have posted double-figure blocks. Brooke Wood led NSU with six total blocks (1 solo, 5 assists) while Channing Burleson had 20 digs. Rogers added 16 digs to her 17 kills for her sixth double-double of the season.

Northwestern State returns to action Saturday when it wraps up a stretch of three road matches in five days at Nicholls at 11 a.m. Following that match, NSU opens a four-match homestand on Oct. 4.