NATCHITOCHES – A late, long first-set rally took the air out of Prather Coliseum as New Orleans stole the opening set using that momentum to get the 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-22) win against Northwestern State.
 
A close set nearly turned into a runaway for the Lady Demons (2-11, 0-11) when they took a 22-15 lead behind the fourth service ace of the opening set and four UNO (3-11, 3-9) errors. A Privateer kill closed the gap by one and the next nine serves off the hand of UNO's Chloe Hampton ended with a point for the visitors stealing the opening set and putting the Lady Demons behind the eight ball.
 
"We had them out of system early with some aggressive serves," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "Those serves allowed us to stay in the match because we were struggling offensively. They made a couple of adjustments on how they were attacking us that we were a little bit slow adjusting to. When you have a set taken like that and lose it, it makes it difficult to rebound." 
 
The Lady Demons had four of their seven total aces in the first set, but a match-high 11 attack errors and negative hitting percentage kept them from putting away the opener.
 
Trying to put the frustrating end behind them, the Lady Demons battled through the first part of the second set taking a slim 7-6 lead after kills from Autumn Gentry, Breanna Burrell and Addison McDermott.
 
Unfortunately, UNO had another long rally in its pocket, this time rattling off seven straight points, once again on the serve of Hampton, to take a commanding 15-8 lead with the 9-1 run. The Lady Demons made a late push with kills from Burrell, Gentry and Audrey Quesnel, but the margin was too great.
 
Down 8-4 in the third set the Lady Demons put together perhaps their best stretch of play in the past couple of week. Nearly matching UNO's long scoring run from the first, NSU rattled off nine straight points turning the four-point deficit into a five-point lead.
 
Two kills each from Gentry and McDermott along with NSU's lone block of the match from Gentry and Quesnel bolstered the run that swung all the momentum to the purple and white. The 11-1 run in total once again put the Lady Demons on the front foot with a 15-9 lead.
 
"It was good volleyball," Kiracofe said of the lengthy scoring stretch. "It was smart plays and the layers that are involved in defense were there. People were playing off the ball and putting themselves in good position to be able to make that next play and that next attack. That's not something we've seen show up on a consistent basis but it'll come more but it's just a little frustrating when you don't have that consistency."
 
Just three serves later though UNO answered with a 10-1 run regaining the lead at 20-17. The Lady Demons got to within a point on three different occasions in the final serves on kills from Burrell and McDermott and a quick two-point burst from Jaylibeth Garcia-Rosa (kill and an ace), but UNO closed the door with a kill and ace of its own securing the sweep.
 
McDermott finished the night with her second double-double (10 kills, 13 digs) of the season, leading the team in both categories on the night. Ragan Ward set a new career best with 25 assists in the match.
 
NSU closes the 2021 spring season on Saturday afternoon in Prather  at 1 p.m. against Nicholls.