BEAUMONT, Texas – A long-awaited home match ended with a win for Northwestern State on Tuesday, but the focus now immediately shifts back to the road with three straight road conference matches.
 
While the NSU football team will welcome Lamar back to the Southland Conference on Saturday, the Lady Demons (7-5, 0-1) will do so on Thursday night in Beaumont. The match is set for 6 p.m. from McDonald Gym in Beaumont.
 
In the past week, where NSU has played 25 sets across six matches, the defensive execution and the matter of ball control have seen improvement from the first two weekends of the year. A week without a match to work on those things and other certainly did help the cause, but the steadiness that new libero Ashlyn Svoboda has found in the position has also been a catalyst for the overall improvement.
 
"I played libero in club a little bit, so it wasn't really fresh to me, but all last year I trained as if I was going to take the position for this season," Svoboda said. "But now it just feels like home for me and I love it."
 
The comfortability she felt this past week was evident as she set and reset new career best dig totals, averaged 5.23 digs per set, 23.0 digs per match and was named the Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Week.
 
The radiation of trust, and in some case pure effort, that comes with a solid defensive back line, no matter the rotation, has served the Lady Demons well with four wins in their past six matches.
 
"Early on there was a lot of that still getting to know each other on the floor," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "So, we came out of those first two weekends averaging 12 digs per set, granted that was against some good competition in that second weekend. 
 
"This past weekend though we bumped it up to 15 and a half, which is pretty close to where we want to be. There's still some room for improvement but that's what we need to do on a regular basis. That comes from, in a lot of situations, just playing hard, picking balls up and continually working."
 
 After a slow start to Tuesday's home opener, that's exactly what the Lady Demons did following the first media break through the rest of the match – play hard. No moment more telling than the early third set save by Laura Weatherford and Svoboda well behind the end line that led to an NSU point.
 
"We just have to keep picking each other up," Svoboda said. "Somebody might not be having their best game, but you've got to be there to pick them up. I think we did that really well this past weekend. Just being there for your teammates and not giving up on each other."
 
NSU carries that mentality into a match against Lamar, a team they have beaten 11 times in the past 12 meetings including a 3-1 win in Beaumont a year ago. The now-again conference match takes on more significance for that fact but serves as the next development point for an NSU team that is continuing to meld together.
 
"It's the debate, at least for me, between enough practice, and being intentional about what we're practicing versus they just need to get out there and play," Kiracofe said. "We hope that it's the latter, but playing experience is sometimes hard to measure. 
 
"Texas Southern did some good stuff and made sure that we were engaged during the entire rally. But going into Lamar on Thursday just more experience with this group is going to be a good thing."