NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State wanted a successful weekend to carry into their midweek match with Jackson State on Tuesday. After some faulty play in the first set, the Lady Demons gathered that momentum and settled in for a 3-1 (25-21, 25-15, 22-25, 25-12) win, their third straight and fourth in the past five matches.
 
"There were some great moments and some bad moments but overall it was a win and you never complain about those," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "Definitely some stuff we can look at on film to be a little bit more consistent and have a little more attention to detail, but some flashes of really good stuff."
 
The Lady Demons (5-7) appeared to have that same attitude that carried them through two wins this past weekend to start the first set. Early kills from Breanna Burrell got the Demons going and a 5-0 run seemed to have broken the game open to put NSU ahead 13-8.
 
Jackson State however would not go away in the first. A 12-2 stretch where the only NSU points came on a pair of Tiger service errors flipped the lead to the visitors in a hurry. As quickly as the Tigers went ahead, the Lady Demons took it back even faster. Four straight JSU errors began the rally and NSU took the lead on two kills from Jaylibeth Garcia-Rosa and another from Burrell.
 
Symone Wesley put the winner home to finish off a 10-1 run that put the Demons up one with plenty of momentum to spare.
 
"I think we just kind of settled down and just focused," Kiracofe said. "From the beginning we were passing serves that were going out of bounds or playing balls that they were hitting out. We just focused on where we were and what we were doing. 
 
"We were doing good things to put them in a position to make those errors and we started to take advantage of them by letting them go out or making a play when we needed to, like taking smart swings when those situations came up."
 
The Lady Demons took the strong finish and turned it up a notch in the second set by erecting a wall at the net that the Tigers could not break through.
 
Three NSU blocks within the first few serves set the tone. Garcia-Rosa was the main force in the middle for the Demons picking up a solo block, her 10^th straight match with at least one solo, and adding a handful of others as NSU totaled five in the set.
 
A late serving run from Haley Hoang extended the three-point lead to seven and NSU nearly matched the set-winning run from the first by closing the second on an 8-1 stretch, punctuated by a kill from Garcia-Rosa.
 
"Jackson State did a really good job early of moving the ball around initially and a fantastic job of running a quick set in the middle and setting them off the net to give them some space away from the block," Kiracofe said. "When they lose one or it gets blocked a few times or gets dug people start pushing a little more it gives you an opportunity to go block that ball. 
 
"We weren't in the net like we were in the first, more focused, consistent and had more attention to detail and when they tried to take those statement swings we were able to take advantage of it."
 
Jackson State used an early 5-0 run to jump ahead in the third set, a lead that this time they would not relinquish. The Demons had a run of five straight points on kills but mixed in with those points were JSU kills to match them, prevented NSU from putting a longer run together like the previous two sets. 
 
Piper Boydstun got the Demons off to a 5-0 lead in the fourth with an effective serving run that included a pair of aces. Boydstun led the team with six on the match and turned in her second double-double of the season with 28 assists and 11 digs. 
 
The lead eventually grew to 13-4 after two more aces, this time from Autumn Gentry, and kills from Symone Wesley and Garcia-Rosa planted the Demons in the driver seat to take the match. A 10-2 run near the end gave the Demons match point and after a service error, Kate Idrogo pounded the match winner home.
 
NSU had three players reach double-digit kills for the third straight match. Burrell, Garcia-Rosa and Wesley each finished the night with 10 kills. Garcia-Rosa added five more points to her line with four total blocks and an ace. Hoang led all players with 18 digs.
 
The Lady Demons travel to Arlington, Texas for the final tournament weekend of the season and take on Prairie View A&M on Friday afternoon to start the Maverick Invitational at UT-Arlington.