TULSA, Oklahoma – Taking late leads wasn't a problem for the Northwestern State volleyball team Saturday afternoon.
 
Closing out sets was where the Lady Demons ran into trouble.
 
Despite holding late leads in all three sets, Northwestern State fell 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-20) to host Tulsa in NSU's final match of the Tulsa Volleyball Invitational.
 
"It came down to executing when it mattered, and we didn't do that enough today," fourth-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "We were better for the majority of the set and had opportunities to close out some set wins, but we couldn't make it happen. Tulsa is a strong team, so when you have some advantages in situations and opportunities you have to produce. If you don't do that, they certainly will."
 
Never was that more visible than in the second set.
 
Northwestern State (4-4) built a five-point lead early in the set and had another after Madeline Drake's kill made it 17-12. Tulsa (6-2) responded with an 8-2 run to take a one-point lead before Hannah Brister delivered one of her 11 kills to even the set at 20.
 
Following Brister's kill, Tulsa ran off three straight points before trading points to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
The third set was much tighter throughout as neither team held more than a two-point lead until an attack error by Tulsa's Rachel Moore put Northwestern State ahead 16-13.
 
NSU built another three-point edge at 18-15 on Brister's final kill of the match. From there, Tulsa went on a 6-2 run that forced Kiracofe to take a timeout. The break did not slow the Golden Hurricane's momentum as Tulsa knocked down three more points before NSU took its second and final timeout of the set.
 
That proved ineffective against the Tulsa momentum as Moore and Elyse Savadove delivered back-to-back kills to close out the match.
 
Reagan Rogers bounced back from a tough match Friday to tie for match-high honors with 12 kills on a .243 hitting percentage. Brister added 11 kills while Channing Burleson picked up 15 digs, giving her 45 in the two tournament matches.
 
Northwestern State returns to action Friday when it faces Oklahoma at 11 a.m. in the OU Nike Invitational.