NATCHITOCHES – It didn't end the way it'd hoped it would, but Northwestern State produced the performance it needed on Tuesday with designs on rinsing and repeating Thursday.
 
The Lady Demons (13-12, 6-8) showed everything head coach Sean Kiracofe wanted to see an more against Southeastern following a difficult final road trip into Texas a week ago. Serve receive passes continued to be where they needed to be, for the vast majority of the night, leading to a flowing offense that the Lions found incredibly difficult to defend.
 
With just four matches remaining it the regular season, NSU's opportunity to climb the standings lay directly in front of them with two consecutive matches against New Orleans (14-12, 8-6) beginning on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. in Prather Coliseum.
 
Live stat links for the match will be available at www.nsudemons.com 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 match at NSU.
 
Six different players had five kills or more in Tuesday's five-set loss to the Lions led by Reaghan Thompson's 11. Freshman Madisynne McQueen set a new career high with nine kills with Symone Wesley and Addison McDermott each contributing seven on the night.
 
A welcome sign after two matches on the last road trip saw five or more kills just four times.
 
"We play like we did last night on Thursday I think we come out with a win," Kiracofe said. "We've got to continue to absolutely buy into the thought process that it shouldn't be anything else than, that was progress against Southeastern. We rebounded from the week before, it was great being able to play the way we did against one of the better teams in the conference, now you do that against everybody else and you're going to come away with wins."
 
Along with the dynamic offense NSU has seen for most of the season, the Demon block that has been elite most of the year enjoyed a resurgence on Tuesday.
 
Fueled by Thompson's second double-digit blocking performance of the year, giving her a kill-block double-double in the match, NSU stop 15 potential kills from one of the best offensive teams in the conference, matching the second most blocks in a match this season.
 
The proverbial cherry atop the sundae came in the form of Thompson's 100^th stop of the season. She is the first freshman to every reach that number in a single year and just the sixth player total in program history.
 
The Lady Demons take all of that into a match with the Privateers that have been one of the surprise teams in the league under second-year coach Ashley Peters.
 
After just one win a year ago, UNO, with a wide assortment of changes coming into the year, sits in fifth in the conference standing with an 8-6 mark in league play and 14-12 record on the season.
 
"They, like us and some other teams in the conference, made some big changes in the offseason," Kiracofe said. "It's basically a brand-new roster with a few key returners so that's going to be a learning experience for us. They've been playing well and were undefeated at home until this last weekend. It will be a whole new experience to see what they can do."
 
Like the Demons, the Privateer defense and block has been their strength during conference play. UNO sits in the middle of the pack, sixth overall, in both categories averaging 2.0 blocks per set and 16.4 digs per set. NSU ranks fourth and third in those same categories respectively.
 
Libero Sheilah Purcell, one of six returners from 2021, is third in SLC matches with 5.06 digs per set.