NATCHITOCHES – An offensive swing fest for much of the day on both sides of the net ended in disappointment for Northwestern State as they fell to McNeese in straight sets 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-19).
 
The outside hitters for both teams, Symone Wesley and Breanna Burrell for the Lady Demons (7-13, 1-4) and Macee Krpec and Aryn Johnson for McNeese (9-7, 3-2), went toe-to-toe all day combining for well over half of their team's kills. The difference came down to the inability of the NSU to take away the Cowgirl swings.
 
"Our outsides did really good in the end – hit well, high percentages – and they had to work hard to do it because we did not make it easy on them whatsoever," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "We made it a whole lot easier on McNeese's outsides to just swing away. We weren't able to take away what it is they like to do and win those battles at the net. We got a few more blocks in that third set but we weren't in position to take away those blockable swings for the majority of the match."
 
The Cowgirls established their offensive identity quickly in the first set scoring 13 of their first 17 points of the match on kills without making an error, either unforced or through an NSU block.
 
Two more quick kills after their first attack error gave them a 19-12 lead. The late comfortable lead began to slip away thanks to a pair of swings from Wesley and an easy finish from Jaylibeth Garcia-Rosa after an over pass on a good serve.
 
The Lady Demons closed the gap down to three on two different occasions within the next three serves but a pair of NSU hitting errors and a McNeese block pushed the lead back up and the Cowgirls finished the opening set 25-19.
 
NSU had 10 blocks in three sets against Houston Baptist on Thursday but failed to record one in the opening set against McNeese. The first two blocks for the Lady Demons, and the only in the second set, came during a 3-0 NSU swing where Piper Boydstun and Audrey Quesnel stuffed an attack and Burrell finished the run with a solo that got NSU back within two points at 10-8.
 
Three straight kills, including two from Wesley, after falling back behind by five sparked an 8-3 run that tied the game at 16. McNeese responded with two points for each of NSU's next two pushing the lead back up to four after a service error.
 
The Cowgirls gave the ball to their closer Johnson who got the final two kills of the set to give the 25-21 score.
 
The final set turned near the midway point after the Demons erased a five-point deficit to get back within a point at 13-12. The final point came on a McNeese hitting error by Johnson, her only mistake of the set. She had four of her seven kills in the set in the final 12 points and two in the ensuing 8-0 run McNeese used to pull away for the 25-19 win.
 
Wesley finished the match with 15 kills and a .355 hitting percentage, both career highs, while Johnson led all attackers with 17 kills.
 
The Lady Demons travel to New Orleans next Thursday for a 6:30 p.m. start against the Privateers.