CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – It was a weekend of highs and lows for Northwestern State volleyball, splitting their first two Southland Conference matches of the season.
 
The Lady Demons (9-7, 1-1) lost a frustrating opener to Sam Houston to start the weekend, but quickly responded with an impressive win against Houston Baptist on Saturday.
 
The quick and dramatic turn in play, more in line with how NSU had performed to this point in the season, was thanks to a challenge issued by fifth-year head coach Sean Kiracofe on Friday. A challenge the team took to heart.
 
"You never get that first match back," Kiracofe said. "You never get that opportunity to go 2-0 in conference back. We tried to drive that home to them that all those missed opportunities add up, you can't just individualize them.
 
"HBU is good and they were good Saturday. For us to be able to turn around and take the match was big. I was really happy and proud of them that they took that challenge and ran with it."
 
Not surprising it was the balance that Kiracofe has talked about all season that played a huge factor in the win. Hannah Brister and Alexis Warren combined for 34 kills, but Kourtney Seaton added nine and Reagan Lee six from their spots in the middle.
 
Lee was a brick wall at the net most of the weekend. She had eight blocks against Sam Houston and five more against HBU, her best two matches of the season.
 
The defense also shown via libero Megan Lohmiller, who picked up her first SLC Defensive Player of the Week honor earlier this week. She had a career weekend with 27 and 22 digs respectively, 6.1 per set, the first time she tallied 20+ kills in consecutive matches in her time at NSU.
 
That defense stands to be a major catalyst for the Lady Demons success in their next conference match at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
"They have a lot of different ways they can attack you," Kiracofe said. "They have a very offensive setter, they'll go in and out of a 6-2 and give you a different look even just within a set and a lot of people that can take big swings at the ball."
 
The Islanders (8-8, 1-2) have four players with more than 100 kills on the season. Senior setter Madison Green leads the team with 130 kills and a .293 hitting percentage, adding a team best 476 assists to her season total.
 
Outside hitter Chloe Simon (126) and middle blocker Sam Dumity (123) are right behind Green on the offensive leaderboard, with Kylie Filipiak coming in with 117 kills this year.
"They have a lot of different weapons and their opening conference weekend was frustrating for them," Kiracofe said. "I know that we're going to see their best on Thursday. They're good and they're going to be even more motivated to prove a point that the first weekend was a fluke for them."
 
TAMCC lost to Stephen F. Austin (3-0) and Abilene Christian (3-1) in its first full weekend of conference play.
 
Live stats and video for Thursday's match are available at www.nsudemons.com.
 
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