HAMMOND – Back-and-forth, nip-and-tuck, down to the wire all adequately described Northwestern State's five-set win against Louisiana Tech on Friday in the Battle of the Boot hosted by Southeastern.
 
Three of the five sets were decided by the minimum two-point margin, including the decisive final set, as the Lady Demons (5-4) edged past the Lady Techsters 3-2 (25-19, 24-26, 26-24, 19-25, 15-13). 
 
"That was a hard match with a lot of ups and downs physically and emotionally," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "It sounds cliché but it just came down to fighting as a group to find ways to both score and defend."
 
One day after a disjointed first set in their match with Southeastern, the Lady Demons were anything but against Louisiana Tech. 
 
Efficiency was the name of the game as setters Piper Boydstun and Amina Attra spread the 15 kills in the opening frame between six different players, all of whom had at least two kills with just three errors in nearly 40 attempts, a .308 attack percentage. Symone Wesley led the charge with four kills followed immediately by Breanna Burrell's three.
 
NSU was able to stretch its lead to seven late in the set on back-to-back kills from Wesley before Tech drew within three forcing a timeout. The defensive reads out of the break by the Lady Demons proved picture perfect seeing Tech commit four attack errors in the ensuing five serves giving NSU the 25-19 win.
 
Similarly to Thursday's match, NSU saw a late lead in the second slip away. Up 24-22 with set point, not only did Tech off consecutive set winners, they swung the set two points in the other direction with four straight points to steal the set and even them match at one.
 
Undeterred by the late rally, the Demons came out firing early in the third. Four kills on their first six swings game them an early 5-1 advantage. NSU stretch the lead to as much as five before Tech closed the gap with a 5-1 run of their own to even the score at 11.
 
From that point until the end of the set there was little to no separation between the two teams. They went point-for-point and swing-for-swing creating 11 more tie game instances leading up to the end of the set.
 
When it mattered most, the Demons were able to get what they needed to win the critical third set, benefiting from a Tech error and getting the winner on an Amina Attra kill 26-24.
 
NSU was unable to close the match out in the fourth set, with a match-high eight attack errors, seven of them unforced, allowing Tech to build an insurmountable lead. The Lady Demons traded points at the end of the set however to set the stage for the dramatic fifth and take enough momentum into the final frame to come away with the win.
 
An early 4-0 run was key for the Demons in the final set, giving them the lead on a Breanna Burrell kill at 5-3. The stretch immediately following the turn however proved to be the most important of the match.
 
Wesley gave NSU the lead at the break with a kill then immediately followed with another. She had three kills in five NSU points that turned the one-point margin into a 12-9 lead. She finished the set with four kills on no errors bringing her one shy of matching her career high of 18 kills in a match.
 
Tech rallied with a late 3-0 burst to even the set at 12 but one of their nine service errors followed by one of NSU's 11 aces provided the winning margin.
 
NSU continues play in the weekend tournament on Saturday with a match against ULM at 10 a.m. and Southern at 3 p.m.