BEAUMONT, Texas – After suffering a sweep to open the Lamar Invitational on Friday morning, Northwestern State put together one of the better all-around performances of the season for an afternoon sweep of their own.
The Lady Demons fell in straight sets to Little Rock 3-0 (25-22, 25-11, 25-18) but turned the tables to pick up their second sweep of the season, taking down Arkansas-Pine Bluff 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-22) to finish their first day of action.
Little Rock 3, NSU 0
"We had some ups and downs, but it came down to execution," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "We out blocked them on the match, but it could have been so much more. When other teams have taken Little Rock out of what they wanted to do, they started that with the block. While we were getting those touches in a lot of situations, they were turning into tools for them and if we were just a little more consistent that could have changed the direction of set one or potentially set three.
The Lady Demons started the match with their best offensive effort, while Little Rock were slow out of the gate to start the day.
An early 4-0 NSU run, fueled by two Trojan hitting errors and another service error put the Lady Demons ahead 9-7. The lead would stay with NSU through the next run of play until Little Rock showed early signs of finding their offensive rhythm.
Down by one, the Trojans surged ahead on a 6-1 run that gave them a four-point edge. Jaylibeth Garcia-Rosa helped provide a late NSU spark with a solo block and another with the help of Piper Boydstun that evened the game at 18.
The teams traded points over the next six serves giving enough space for the Trojan offense that would control the rest of the match to find its form. Four kills made up the 4-1 set-winning run for Little Rock ending the first at 25-22.
Little Rock used five separate stretches of three or more points in a row to sprint to a second set victory, tallying 14 kills with just two errors in the frame. Combined with four blocks, the second set belonged firmly to the Trojans.
The Lady Demons returned to their first-set form in the third, not coincidentally thanks to the more consistent block at the net. Three more blocks in the third added to the four from the first to give NSU the chance they needed. Little Rock however, was on an offensive roll that only marginally slowed down.
A 5-0 run put the Trojans up 18-9 and despite a quick answer from the Demons, and a valiant effort by libero Haley Hoang who had nine of her match-leading 16 digs in the third set, the teams traded points down the stretch. NSU could not string together a run of points to close the gap and force another set.
NSU 3, UAPB 0
The Lady Demons set the tone early with a string of well-placed and difficult to handle serves. Haley Hoang and Addison McDermott did the most damage in the first set with multiple serving runs of three or more to stake to a comfortable 18-10 lead.
Three services aces in the set, and eight overall, along with plenty of challenging balls that forced wild saves by the Pine Bluff defense allowed the Lady Demons to take advantage on the offensive end.
Pine Bluff made a late run in the first to close the gap, holding off five set points in a row, but Jaylibeth Garcia-Rosa ended the first with a kill to put the Lady Demons up by one in the match.
The Lady Lions did a better job handling the demonic serves in the second which translated into a much more competitive frame, something that Kiracofe knew would happen after seeing the Lady Lion play earlier in the day.
"We talked about that going in," he said. "Pine Bluff worked extremely hard and never gave up on any point during any of the three sets. We told the girls they were going to have to work really hard while the ball was play. We did that and when we had opportunities to swing away, we did and we were smart and moved the ball around in a bunch of different ways and presented a variety of different ways to score."
Well placed, timed and powered swings were the theme for the Lady Demons throughout the night and showed itself in spades in the second and third sets. With Pine Bluff continually picking up digs on heavy NSU swings, the Lady Demons found perfect tips as an answer time and time again.
Two late kills from Symone Wesley in the second secured the Lady Demons' 2-0 lead in the match and after a 6-0 serving run from McDermott in the third provided plenty enough of a lead for NSU to win the match.
The Lady Demons got four of their final five points of the match on kills to punctuate the all-around performance.
Three players ended the match with double-digit kills – Breanna Burrell (12), Addison McDermott (11) and Symone Wesley (10). McDermott and Wesley both added double-digit digs for two of the three NSU double-doubles in the match. Setter Piper Boydstun, who made her first start of the season after coming in against Grambling on Wednesday, turned in the other with her 39 assists and 10 digs.
"I don't know if we've seen a team this year that was as good about their shots and tips and really hitting extreme angles," Kiracofe said. "They did a really good job of moving the ball around and they were a difficult team to defend so I was really happy with our performance overall, specifically being able to make adjustments."
The Lady Demons finish the weekend with a 1 p.m. match against the host Lamar, before returning to Prather Coliseum for a home match with Jackson State on Wednesday night
