THIBODAUX, Louisiana – Northwestern State volleyball makes learning and adjusting on the fly look easy, and the story was no different in their sweep of New Orleans on Thursday.
 
The Lady Demons (17-8, 9-2 SLC) pulled out a 25-23 first set win then turned in two of the more dominant performances of the season to finish the match. A 25-10 and 25-15 score line in the second and third that saw just two attack errors total, one in each set, and a combined .419 hitting percentage.
 
The ability to adjust to what the other team presents is something that coach Sean Kiracofe takes pride in, especially with the group of seniors like Alexis Warren and Megan Lohmiller, the two most recent members of the NSU 1,000-dig club, that lead the way.
 
"That's a process that's been going on for years since I got here," Kiracofe said. "Them learning how I'm going to make adjustments and how we deal with a scout going into a match.
 
If something pops up within the match saying, 'Ok we're stopping that immediately and I need you to do this.' It takes a while for a group or any player coming in as a freshman to do a complete 180 like that, but they learn it an get better at it. This group has been really good at it."
 
The ability to make those adjustments in-match and in the days leading up to them are what make this Lady Demon team one of the front runners of the conference. NSU still has one more new opponent to face before they take on four familiar faces to close out the season and really put the knowledge of those teams to the test.
 
Nicholls (10-12, 4-7 SLC) has already turned in a far more successful season than their previous. With five matches remaining they have already tripled their win total from a season ago and quadrupled their conference win mark.
 
"Nicholls is much improved and one of the big surprise teams this season," Kiracofe said. "They have a lot of consistency that they did not have last year that could be potentially troublesome on the road."
 
The Colonels started the conference slate hot, winning four of their first six. The last five however have not gone their way, including sweeps in four of those matches. They took Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to five sets on the road, their only two set wins in the last three weeks.
 
Sophomores Katie Jones and Emily Gauthreaux have provided the bulk of the offense for the Colonels this season. They share over 40 percent of the team's kill total between the pair. Jones and Gauthreaux have similar attack percentages at .177 and .209 respectively with the team hitting an even .200 on the year.
 
A win for the Lady Demons on Saturday would secure their fourth straight and 13^thoverall trip to the Southland Conference tournament.
 
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