GRAMBLING – For just the second time in the past four seasons Northwestern State plays a midweek match on the road with designs on building from the glimpses of promise following an otherwise challenging weekend.
 
The Lady Demons (1-6) travel to Grambling (0-3) on Wednesday for a 6 p.m. tilt with the Lady Tigers. It will be the first time in 13 years that NSU plays a match at the north-Louisiana HBCU. Live video links for the match are available at nsudemons.com.
 
NSU faced a gauntlet of opponents at the Ole Miss Invitational, losing all three matches on the weekend but were able to put forward play that displayed moments of growth, most notably in the Coastal Carolina and Ole Miss matches. 
 
"To put something together and make a run, take a set and push them late into a few other sets was good to see," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "Now it's about being able to maintain that level because you have to step up because of the team on the other side of the net. That's just becomes what we do on a regular basis. That's the challenge now. Finding that consistency."
 
Third-set wins against both the Chanticleers and Rebels, where NSU hit a combined .255, were a picture of the progress the Lady Demons have seen in pieces across the first two weeks of the season.
 
In the match against Ole Miss, it was Symone Wesley and Breanna Burrell that provided key swings on a regular basis to help the Lady Demons win the only set against the tournament host on the weekend.
 
The duo totaled 14 kills in sets two and three, with just two errors between them, providing a constant scoring threat each time the ball was sent their way.
 
"We've seen those glimpses of plays working exactly how it's supposed and people moving the way they should have moved," Kiracofe said." There are glimpses of what I want the team to play like, because there's still a bunch of new faces out there.
 
"We're still figuring out who's taking this ball, who's doing this or that and how I want transition offense to look and different situations where we isolate different attackers. It's just going to take some time."
 
The Lady Demons will look for more growth opportunities as they take on a Grambling team they have traditionally excelled against. 
 
NSU is 9-1 against the Lady Tigers over the past 10 matches with an overall 39-2 mark dating back to the first meeting in 1987. The two losses in the series have both come at Grambling, the most recent the last trip NSU made to north Louisiana.
 
Wednesday's match will be the second midweek affair of the week for the Lady Tigers after they host Centenary on Tuesday, their first match since the opening weekend of the season where they went 0-3 at the North Texas Invite.
 
Teams are hitting a combined .314 against the Lady Tigers, including two instances of .345 or better, presenting the Lady Demons with the chance to build more confidence with their own attack.
 
Grambling also allows an average of 3.0 aces per set with the Demons turning in a 6.14 ace per match average thus far, a nearly two ace per set clip.