NEW ORLEANS – Northwestern State responded in a major way on Saturday to a pair of tough opening-day losses. The Lady Demons kept their foot on the gas all day for a convincing 3-0 (25-11, 25-10, 25-15) sweep of Alabama A&M on the final day of the Tulane Invite.

Commanding early leads in each of the three sets continued to swell thanks to a balanced offense, aggressive serves and near unbreakable defense.

Nine different players tallied at least one kill, five players had aces and the NSU defense held Alabama A&M to just 11 total kills behind 38 digs and four blocks.

"I really liked our consistency during the match," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "That isn't always easy to have when you go from playing someone like Cal and then to a team that will give you a completely different look, style of play and tempo.

"Like in that third set against Lafayette, I was really happy that we were able to make line up changes and not have any drop in our level of play."

An earlier than anticipated start time of 10 a.m., did not phase the Lady Demons who came out swinging with four kills, three from all-tournament player Symone Wesley, in the first six points to take the 6-0 lead out the gate.

The Bulldogs made pushes trying to work back into the match, but only managed getting within five on a couple different occasions, the final coming at 16-11. A couple of A&M errors sandwiched another Wesley kill beginning the final 9-0 run for NSU.

Jaylibeth Garcia-Rosa provided three aces during her lengthy serving run pushing NSU to the 25-11 opening win.

The second began with shades of the first as the Lady Demons sprinted to a 9-1 advantage with Haley Hoang's long serving run that included a pair of early aces. The already big lead grew even more on the 8-1 run later in the set making it a one-sided 20-4 affair.

Freshman Kate Idrogo took the final points into her own hands with four kills, including the final three in a row to secure the commanding set win and put the Lady Demons in position for a sweep. She nearly matched the effort in the final points of the third set with three kills after the 20-point mark. Her eight kills in the match led all players.

"Kate was really impressive today," Kiracofe said. "She is accustom to being the go-to attacker on her teams and that was very evident when she stepped on the court today. She wanted and expected the ball and did good things with it when she got it. She's a versatile player that can play six rotations and provide offense from anywhere, so it's good to see her start to settle into the collegiate level."

The Lady Demons early lead in the third came from the 7-0 run where Reagan Lee buried a kill and stuffed an attack on consecutive points to put NSU up 11-3. A&M pulled to within five like they had done in the second, but once again a closing run prevented any comeback. Four straight kills and an ace began the 7-2 stretch that gave NSU its first win and sweep of the season.

Wesley earned an all-tournament team spot with her 26 kills and 20 digs in three matches on the weekend. Hoang finished the weekend with 43 digs and Autumn Gentry dished out 65 assists.

NSU plays its first fall home match since 2019 on Tuesday night as in-state rival ULM makes the way to Prather Coliseum for a 6:30 start.