Box Score NATCHITOCHES – All season long Northwestern State has lived in five-set matches. After three straight in the span of 26 hours during tournament play, the Lady Demons notched another thriller in the belt on Thursday with a third straight five-set home match.
 
In one of the biggest matches of the season, certainly in terms of tournament positioning, the Lady Demons (16-12, 9-8) used a balanced offense and size advantage at the net to win their eighth match in 3-2 (25-19, 22-25, 25-16, 20-25, 15-11) fashion.
 
NSU had six players record seven or more kills in the match with Breanna Burrell, Reaghan Thompson and, on her senior night, Addison McDermott who got her first double-double of the season.
 
"A lot of those kills that we were able to spread around came directly because of our defensive play," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "Them being able to keep those long rallies going allowed us to have something that we can run an offense and have multiple options with. Our passes weren't quite at the level we have been seeing the past three or four matches, but the defense was there and we were able to get points in transition when we needed it." 
 
Through the early stages of the match the Demons had nearly every shot they wanted working as they hoped. Power swings came at the right time, roll shots and tips found their homes or put the Cardinals in difficult positions to recover effectively.
 
NSU used that effectiveness to ease its way to a 25-19 first-set win.
 
After one of the most back-and-forth sets of the year in the second, where the teams traded 16 consecutive points in a row, the Cardinals were able to even the match thanks to three straight kills after NSU took the late lead starting a 6-0 run to reach 25.
 
The Demons found their groove once again in the third, screaming ahead on an 11-1 scoring run early in the set. Two kills from McDermott and two aces, one each from Symone Wesley and Jordan Gamble, put NSU comfortably ahead 18-10.
 
Wesley helped finish the set with a kill and a block to score a point for her team in three different ways during the set.
 
The Cardinals were able to force a fifth set after their best offensive period of the match, getting a match-best 16 kills with just four total errors and only one unforced error. But the 25-20 set win only put the Demons into comfort mode as they entered their 11^th five-set match of the season.
 
Amina Attra scored on a dump for the first point and after more back-and-forth point trading to and beyond the turn, a 4-1 NSU run as the difference in the match.
 
Burrell put the Demons up by a pair, and after a UIW kill cut it back to one, Burrell and Thompson scored on back-to-back serves to inch the Demons closer to victory. The Cardinals picked up one more kill before things were said and done, but once again Thompson showed the ice in her veins in critical situations stuffing the final point alongside Madisynne McQueen.
 
NSU, along with the entire rest of the conference, enters Saturday's final match day with tournament seedings still up for grabs.