HAMMOND – In the postseason every play and point is magnified and chocked full of pressure.
 
If the regular season is any indication, Northwestern State volleyball is prepared to meet the pressure moments of the Southland Conference Tournament with open arms.
 
The Lady Demons (17-12, 10-8) played in 12 different five-set matches during the 2022 season, the second most in a season in program history. The difference this year is the nine wins in five-set matches, including three straight at home as part of the season-ending four-match winning streak.
 
The nine five-set wins is the most in a season ever by a Lady Demon team, blowing by the previous record of four last done during the 2010 season.
 
"I think that we work better under pressure," sophomore libero Ashlyn Svoboda said. "That's something that we've kind of gotten used to playing five-set matches all the time. We just have to put our mind to it when we're in it."
 
NSU will face plenty of pressure moments, well before any potential fifth-set drama, with the start the single-elimination conference tournament on Thursday at 2 p.m. from the University Center in Hammond.
 
The fifth-seeded Lady Demons take on eight-seed UIW (6-22, 5-13) to open the tournament weekend live on ESPN+. The winner of the match moves on to face No. 4 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday.
 
The mindset the Lady Demons have cultivated in those pressure moments started in the first weekend of the season and was refined even further during the second.
 
"We found ourselves in a five-set match in the first match of the year," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "Afterwards we commented as a coaching staff on how calm and optimistic they were going into it. That's great in general but even better when it's a bunch of young players. It's a credit to this group on their mindset."
 
It was the first trip to the University Center this year for NSU that served as one of the early defining moments. Three five-set matches in the span of 26 hours against Louisiana Tech, ULM and Southern not only produced two wins but a comfortability NSU will carry with it to the tournament.
 
Being familiar with the arena and its size and the lighting were all things Svoboda said were going to be helpful for NSU entering the tournament.
 
"That comfort level in the environment you're in absolutely matters," Kiracofe said. "So, we have a little bit of a leg up on the other teams because we've been there and played a lot of tough matches there. It's not going to feel foreign to us at all."
 
A comfortability factor, combined with the momentum NSU has gained over the final two weeks of the season and a truly up-for-grabs, any teams tournament to win, provide the Lady Demons plenty of ammunition to make a run at the title.
 
A championship run that will most assuredly begin and end with defense. The adage of defense wins championships isn't true for no reason, and that has been the centerpiece of the Lady Demons' run of four straight wins to close the season.
 
"We made a little adjustment to the lineup that made Addison (McDermott) six rotations, in serve receive more often and just her serve itself added some changes that made us more consistent all around," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "So we've had three players, between Addison, Symone (Wesley) and Ashlyn that are putting up libero type numbers in terms of digs over the past couple weeks."
 
The efforts on the back row helped, "stabilize things" Kiracofe added, allowing NSU to use its wealth of offensive talent at the net in many different ways.
 
In each of the las four matches, NSU has had at least four players with five or more kills every time. Against UIW it had six players with eight or more kills and four with eight or more against Texas A&M-Commerce.
 
Balanced offense starts with good defense. NSU's impressive block, led by the freshman duo of Reaghan Thompson and Jordan Gamble, have made life much easier on the back row for one of the best defensive duos in NSU history of Svoboda and Symone Wesely.
 
They both rank in the top 10 in NSU season history in total digs and are the first pair to record 450 digs in a season in school history.
 
"We both trust each other enough to know that we're both going to do our jobs on the floor," Svoboda said of her relationship with Wesley. "We're definitely comfortable with each other on the back row and know what we need to do and where we need to be."