CONWAY, Arkansas – Northwestern State volleyball completed its best regular season under head coach Sean Kiracofe in 2019, earning, thanks to a coin flip, the No. 3 seed in the Southland Conference tournament.
 
Picked seventh in the SLC preseason poll, the Lady Demons (19-11, 11-5 SLC) may have exceeded the expectations of those on the outside but have met the standard that Kiracofe set prior to the year.
 
"This is exactly the way that I thought it was going to play out," Kiracofe said. "We're right on track with where myself and the assistant coaches thought we would be at the beginning of the year. 
 
"There were matches that obviously didn't go our way so it's a little different than what we wrote out, but we're right there. We thought we would get second and we were one match away from doing that."
 
Newly crowned Southland Player of the Year Hannah Brister has been the cornerstone of the NSU offense and the most dominant offensive threat all year long. Her 478 kills and 4.69 per set average both rank in the top 15 nationally, nearly 50 kills and one kill per set more than the next closest Southland player.
 
Coupled with a stout defense, led by libero Megan Lohmiller, and do-it-all player Alexis Warren, the Lady Demons enter the 2019 tournament as one of the favorites to make it to Sunday's championship match.
 
Chasing their first 20-win season since 2012 and a trip to the SLC title match, NSU faces off against Houston Baptist (17-14. 9-7 SLC) for the third time this year in a win-or-go-home rubber match Friday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.
 
The first two days of competition will be streamed live on the Southland Digital Network, available by visiting www.southland.org, with the championship match broadcast live on ESPN+ on Sunday afternoon. Links are also available at www.nsudemons.com. 
 
"Happy with the matchup and feel like it's going to be a good match," Kiracofe said of HBU. "We had a rough day in some areas of the game last time we saw them but that will clean itself up and I think that we match up well."
 
Although it will be the third time the teams have seen each other this year, each winning on their home floor, the September 28 win during the opening weekend of SLC seems a lifetime ago for the Lady Demons, with both teams looking markedly different at this point in the year.
 
"It feels like it's the second match with them compared to the third just because of the time span between one and two," Kiracofe said. "So, it just seems like a quick rematch instead of a third time we've played each other. 
 
"It's a lot of focus on that last match and what they did and what we did well. It's about the level of play we did not reach that we were expecting and cleaning those things up and provide a different wrinkle there and see what we can do."
 
A win sends NSU to the 12 p.m. match Saturday against the winner of the Sam Houston and Southeastern Louisiana match that kicks off tournament action Friday morning.
 
"There is a lot of parity in this conference," Kiracofe said. "Anybody can beat anyone on a given day. I've said this the last few years, the top teams in this conference - it's just really good volleyball. You're going to have good matches regardless of who it is."
 
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