LARAMIE, Wyoming – The Northwestern State volleyball season officially ended on Thursday night in the first round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship tournament with a 3-0 loss to Wyoming.
 
The Lady Demons (20-13) showed a good effort against a quality Wyoming team that was dominant at times at the net and had a .357 attack percentage. 
 
"I thought we played really well," coach Sean Kiracofe said. "In sets one and three we did a lot of things to put ourselves in a position to gain an advantage against a bigger team. It was just a point here and there that just didn't go our way to be able to put that pressure on them and in a stressful situation. I'm really proud of this team. They've had a fantastic year and one of the best years in this program's history."
 
The Cowgirls went on an early 6-2 run in the first set to begin to create some space between the Lady Demons, taking a 13-8 lead. NSU closed the gap on a pair of kills from Hannah Brister and a clutch block from Skylar Besch and Kourtney Seaton making it 16-14.
 
The Lady Demons stayed close with Wyoming over the next several points, but were not able to even the score, pulling within a point on multiple occasions. A Haley Hoang ace made it 20-19, but three straight Cowgirl points gave the home team the edge they needed to pull out the 25-22 opening set win.
 
Wyoming jumped out to a 6-1 lead early in the second, forcing an early NSU timeout. The Lady Demons responded with a 5-2 run to get back within a pair at 8-6 on kills from Alexis Warren and Brister. The momentum kept building for the Lady Demons with a 5-0 run later in the set where kills from Warren and Darria Williams tied the match at 13.
 
An 12-3 Cowgirl run immediately followed the NSU push to tie the set and put the home team ahead 2-0 in the match.
 
Following their worst offensive set of the night, the Lady Demons responded with their best in the third. The teams went back and forth through the first 12 points with Williams and Warren keeping the match close along the way.
 
After another kill from Addison McDermott that made it a 15-14 match, the Cowgirls had a 5-1 run that created the distance they needed to hold off NSU in the third. 
 
The second postseason appearance in program history served as another stepping-stone for what Kiracofe has built and continuing to build going forward.
 
"A tournament like this is huge for us," Kiracofe said. "It creates that expectation that we got there and that's great but next time we're going to win that first round game and get to the next round. To have that expectation as players and coaches, it's just a great experience."
 
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