CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Despite inconsistent offense throughout the day, Northwestern State pushed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to the end in two of three sets but were unable to force extra serves or sets in a 3-0 (25-23, 25-13, 25-23) loss on Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Demons (13-11, 6-7) started well in the opening set with 12 kills and a .259 attack percentage, but could not maintain the clip in the second or third sets that could have given them the edge they needed. The Islanders maintained their fast start throughout the match with numerous big swings and fast kills.
"I would like to have pushed the match to extra sets like we did at home, but I'm happy we put ourselves in a position in sets one and three to do that," head coach
Sean Kiracofe said. "Corpus is a team that is predictable, but they don't care about that because they do what they do really well. Experience really comes into play when you talk about taking something away from them or exploiting weak areas. Our team will get there with time."
NSU and Corpus traded points early in the first with
Addison McDermott getting a pair of kills for two of NSU's first seven points to tie things at seven.
The Islanders made their first push with a 7-2 run to take the biggest lead to that point, but a pair of aces from
Laura Weatherford and kills from
Breanna Burrell and
La'Treva Kennedy helped even things again at 14.
Reaghan Thompson and McDermott helped tie the set a final time at 20 with consecutive blocks, but two Leah Stolfus kills were enough for the Islanders to hold on for the 25-23 opening win.
NSU wasn't able to find its rhythm in the second set with a couple of Corpus aces and strong serves kept the Demons scrambling for most of the 25-13 frame.
The Islanders helped NSU's cause for much of the third set, keeping things close by giving the Demons eight of their first 12 points on varying unforced errors. Needing a late spark down 23-18, McDermott got one of her five critical kills to spark a late 5-1 run for the Demons.
Three straight kills from Burrell and Thompson held off three straight match points, forcing a Corpus timeout. As it often does in volleyball the timeout halted the opposing team's rally and the Islanders scored the winning point on the next serve to seal the sweep.
"Addie had another good all-around match, and we just didn't have enough offense top to bottom to help take those close sets," Kiracofe said. "I was also happy with our serve receive passing. That's something we have put a lot of focus on from the beginning of the year and we're seeing results from that work. There were a couple rotations where it broke down today, but overall it was another good performance from our passers."
NSU returns home next week for home matches on Tuesday against Southeastern and Thursday against New Orleans before traveling to the Big Easy next Saturday afternoon.
