HAMMOND – The week four gauntlet for Northwestern State volleyball continues on Thursday with its most important match.
 
A week ahead of the rest of the league, the Lady Demons (4-3) open Southland Conference play with Southeastern (8-2) on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. The match can be seen on ESPN+ with live stat links available at www.nsudemons.com.
 
The matchup with the team picked to finish third in the preseason poll serves as the beginning of a four-match stretch over the course of three days for NSU at the University Center in Hammond, the site of this year's conference tournament.
 
After dispatching Jackson State on Tuesday night with in a 3-1 win that, "wasn't pretty at times…but we found a way to win in difficult situations," according to head coach Sean Kiracofe, the Lady Demons now enter segment two of the three-part week.
 
"One of the challenges is turning around and immediately changing focus (after Jackson State) into Southeastern with the idea that this matters more than anything so far," Kiracofe said. "They (SLU) are going to be one of the top teams in the conference so we're going to find out real quick where we stand going into the rest of the year."
 
The Lions have won each of the past three meetings and through the first three weeks of the season seen three different players earn Southland Player of the Week honors and boast the conference's highest kill per set average (13.2) at the second most efficient percentage (.251).
 
The Lady Demons behind a bigger and more athletic lineup that are still growing together as a unit have shown signs of what could be a battle to watch on Thursday.
 
In six of the seven matches so far this season, NSU has led their opponent in total blocks, the only exception the 8-6 margin at Missouri. Led by freshmen Reaghan Thompson and Jordan Gamble, NSU has have at least three more blocks in every match where it led the category.
 
With a pair of dynamic hitters in SLU's Cicily Hidalgo and Kailin Newsome, the matchup at the net will be an important one.
 
Immediately after the conference-opening tilt with the Lions, NSU transitions in the final segment of the week as Southeastern hosts the Battle for the Boot with five Louisiana-based schools facing off on Friday and Saturday.
 
NSU takes on Louisiana Tech on Friday at 4 p.m. and then plays a rematch with ULM on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. before ending the weekend with Southern at 3 p.m.
 
NSU faces Tech for the first time since 2016 during the delayed COVID season, a 3-1 win for the Lady Demons in Natchitoches. NSU has won five of the last six meetings with the Lady Techsters.
 
ULM ended a nine-match losing streak to the Lady Demons a season ago but are looking for another shot this year after a thrilling 3-2 loss to NSU four weeks ago at the Texan Invitational. Breanna Burrell had a season-high 17 kills and .484 attack percentage in the match against the Warhawks 
 
The Lady Demons will put their 14-match win streak against SWAC schools on the line against Southern, who they haven't faced since before the Kiracofe era and just once in over 25 years.  
 
"There are going to be some battles this week, one right after another," Kiracofe said. "They all have different aspects in what kind of matches they are. It will definitely be a challenge week in several ways but I think a good one for us in the long run."