NATCHITOCES – A rowdy crowd helped fuel Northwestern State to a sweep on Thursday night. The payoff for the fans was a highly entertaining match, the payoff for the Lady Demons – validation of their work.
 
Over the past few weeks the Lady Demons (7-12, 1-3) have been close to coming away with critical points and sets that could have led to match wins. They did that in spades on Thursday in the sweep of top-of-the-table Houston Baptist. Now they look to carry that energy into a pivotal stretch of games starting Saturday. 
 
NSU hosts McNeese (8-7, 2-2) beginning at 1 p.m. at Prather Coliseum. As with every home match this season admission is free, but fans are required to adhere to the department's clear bag policy and encouraged to wear masks while inside the arena.
 
Live subscription video of the match is available at www.nsudemons.com or on the NSU Athletics mobile app, a free download via either the Apple or Google stores.
 
"The improvements have been there it's just been a little hard to see when the end result isn't what you want," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "The validation that we got some of against HBU was really big for the rest of the season."
 
The Lady Demons put together the best string of three consecutive sets all season in Thursday's win with each aspect of blocking, passing and attacking working to near perfection. That was most evidenced by the hitting numbers across the board.
 
Symone Wesley and Breanna Burrell carried the load with a combined 24 of the 40 kills, but the consistency displayed on every attempt truly stole the show. Of the season-low nine attack errors in the match, five were the result the HBU block, statistically the best in the conference, leaving just four errors among the rest of the 99 total attempts.
 
It was also just the third time this season the Lady Demon reached double figures in total blocks with 10, doubling the physical Huskies' block in the match. The previous two times occurring in five-set matches. Jaylibeth Garcia-Rosa has been the centerpiece of the NSU front and established a new career high with seven total blocks including two more solos adding to her conference leading 24 on the year.
 
NSU forced the Huskies to make plays defensively while making plenty of their own and will look to do the same on Saturday against the Cowgirls, who enter the match after dropping a five-set battle to Southeastern.
 
"They have a new freshman outside that is really dynamic and fun to watch," Kiracofe said. "She's a little bit on the smaller side but that doesn't affect her at all, she can get up there and crank the ball. They're giving her the ball a lot and she's scoring at a high pace. 
 
"They're big on the right side and have some pieces in the middle, whether it's athleticism or overall size that can present some problems. They are in some ways similar to HBU as far as their personnel is concerned."
 
The freshman, Aryn Johnson, leads the Cowgirls in kills per set with 2.80 with senior Regan Stiawalt just behind at 2.33. McNeese boasts the second best statistical block in the conference at 2.31 per set and have had five or more blocks in all but two of the their 15 matches.