ARLINGTON, Texas – It took a handful of serves for Northwestern State to find its comfort level Friday afternoon, but once it did there was little slowing down the rest of the day.
 
After trailing by four early, the Lady Demons (6-7) used a long scoring run in the first set to gain momentum and dampen the spirits of Prairie View A&M (0-10) on the road to a convincing 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-15) win. It was the fourth straight victory for NSU and the fifth in the past six matches.
 
"It took us a little while to settle down but that had a lot to do with how Prairie View played early," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "They did a very good job of following their scout and taking some things away from us at the net and in the back court. Once we were able to make some adjustments and cut some unforced errors out, we were able to get on a roll."
 
Down by four after a 7-1 Panther run gave them their biggest lead of the match, helped along by a handful of NSU errors, the Lady Demons and sophomore outside Breanna Burrell caught fire.
 
Burrell scored the first two of five straight kills for the Demons after cutting the lead down to two on a block from Audrey Quesnel and a Panther error. That was the beginning of a 12-0 and 16-1 overall stretch featuring 10 NSU kills, six off the right arm of Burrell, that declawed the Panthers of their early success. 
 
NSU only got better the rest of the match, with their .255 hitting percentage from the first climbing to .282 in the second and .370 in the third. The Lady Demons finished the match with a season-best .292 hitting percentage with 14 or more kills in each of the three sets.
 
The Demon offense continued to click on all cylinders and picked up plenty of steam thanks in large part to Burrell.
 
The sophomore matched a career best with 15 kills and set a new high with a .538 hitting percentage, committing just one error in the match on 26 attempts. She improved upon a tremendous first set of six kills on 11 swings with one error to finish the match with nine more kills on 15 error-free swings, a .600 clip over the final two sets.
 
"Brea had a great match," Kiracofe said. "She took aggressive and smart swings. When you hit hard but with control and a purpose, good things happen. She definitely did that today."
 
Not quite the 12-0 run of the first set but a 7-0 run in the second gave the Demons the boost to take the second. Jaylibeth Garcia-Rosa picked up a pair of blocks during the run, including her 11^th straight match with a solo block, making it a 16-7 game at the time.
 
Burrell helped close the second with two more kills across the final five points, including the set winner.
 
An early 6-0 run in the third provided plenty of breathing room for the Demons and an 8-3 advantage. Garcia-Rosa had a kill and two aces in a serving run a few points later to push the lead to seven and NSU answered with two points nearly every time the Panthers scored the rest of the set securing the sweep and the strong start to the weekend.
 
Kate Idrogo finished the match with nine kills and Symone Wesley added six. Both Wesley and Haley Hoang picked up double-digit digs in the match with 10 and a match-best 17 for the NSU libero.
 
The Lady Demons face Tennessee State and UTA on Saturday to close the non-conference schedule. First serve against TSU is set for 11 a.m. with the finale against UTA scheduled for 6:30 p.m.