NATCHITOCHES – With just two weeks left in the regular season, Northwestern State is hopeful to find a late surge with four home matches in the final five total of the season.
 
The literal and figurative home stretch begins on Tuesday as the Lady Demons (13-11, 6-7) host Southeastern at 6:30 p.m. in Prather Coliseum. The match can be seen at www.nsudemons.com/watch or on the NSU Athletics mobile app, a free download in either the Apple or Google stores. There is no charge for admission to any home volleyball contest at NSU.
 
 NSU had a challenging final road trip to Texas this past weekend with straight set losses to HCU and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The primary culprit to the tough trip was the inability to run a steady offense that created good opportunities for the long list of Demon attackers.
 
With two of the lowest kill and attack percentage totals of the conference season in the past two matches for the Demons, a return home and extended stay could be just what the doctor ordered.
 
NSU's five kill leaders – Breanna Burrell, Symone Wesley, Reaghan Thompson, Jordan Gamble and Addison McDermott – have all shown they have the ability to score in bunches this season. Burrell continues to lead the pack with 263 kills and scoring 3.03 points per set, while Thompson remains one of the most efficient attackers in the conference with a .328 hitting percentage.
 
"We have the athletes and the players to be able to score but we're just not scoring right now," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "We've talked a lot this season about improving our serve-receive pass and they've done the work to improve, specifically from a consistency standpoint over the last six to eight matches. They've been doing their job but now it's about being more consistent with our offense as far as location with our sets and then our attackers have to be able to do something with the ball."
 
The NSU offense will be going up against a Southeastern (19-6, 9-4) team that has been among the league leaders in offense all season, but ranks near the bottom in blocks per set presenting the Demons with an opportunity to find their offensive mojo.
 
Like they were in the first meeting back on Sept. 15, the Lions will bring their full arsenal into the match after a handful of players have missed time over the past couple of weeks.
 
Offensive leader Kailin Newsome continues to be the Lions' go-to option on the outside, entering the match with a 4.53 kill per set average and the only player in the league with an average greater than 4.00 in conference matches. Southeastern has two of the top four kill per set leaders in league play with Newsome and Cicily Hidalgo.
 
They accounted for almost half of the kills for the Lions in the first meeting this year.
 
"The season is a roller coaster for everyone in terms with ups and downs in terms of execution or injuries to different players," Kiracofe said. "We seemingly have been the ones that catch the other team when there are full strength which will be the case on Tuesday. They looked good when we saw them earlier this year. We competed at times, but we were definitely still a very young group and needed to improve in some areas."
 
One of those areas of improvement from the first meeting has been the serve-receive passing and serve reception in general. Just three times in the past eight matches has NSU allowed more than six aces in a match to their opponent.
 
"I know that if we continue to pass the way that we have been in the last four to six matches in serve receive, we are going to give ourselves chances to be able to compete with anybody," Kiracofe said. "Now it's just about getting the offense back in gear."