LAKE CHARLES – Winners of three straight and four of its last five matches, Northwestern State looks to extend its hot streak on Saturday at McNeese.
 
The Lady Demons (8-5, 1-1), off to their best start to this point in the season since 2012, matchup with McNeese (5-10, 1-0) at 11 a.m. from the Legacy Center. Both teams are coming off Southland Conference wins on Thursday night.
 
Live stat and video links for the match are available at www.nsudemons.com or on the NSU Athletics mobile app, a free download in either the Apple or Google stores.
 
For NSU, confidence is key.
 
The Lady Demons won two of their three five-set matches a week ago in Hammond and followed that with a sweep of Texas Southern in the home opener. All have served as confidence builders for the young Demons who continue to mesh in a good way on the floor.
 
"Getting that win (Texas Southern) I think really helped our confidence even more," freshman middle Reaghan Thompson said after Tuesday's match. "We're heading full on into conference play now and I think we're ready to attack it."
 
The confidence was evident in Thursday's win at Lamar. NSU had a .217 attack percentage, and minus the anomalous second set, hit .245 in the other three sets, one of the most efficient offensive matches of the year.
 
"We feel pretty good right now and there is still so much room for improvement in different areas of our game," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "At different times against Lamar we were having some difficulties but as a coaching staff we still felt very confident that we would be able to accomplish what we needed to do to win."
 
Six-rotation standout Symone Wesley has been a key member of the recent surge in confidence for the team. She recorded her team-leading seventh double-double of the season in Thursday's win and is averaging 11.4 kills and 16.1 digs per set, just one dig against Texas Southern shy of seven straight double-digit dig matches.
 
"Symone does everything for us," Kiracofe said. "She doesn't necessarily have to have unbelievable matches from a statistical standpoint, but she's got to be consistent for us. And she's just really stepped up over the past week or so. 
 
"There were a couple of situations against recently where either things weren't going our way or we struggled from play to play and it would have been easy for a player to step back and want a mental break. But she pushed harder and made the choice of being more vocal and provided something no matter what the situation was. I was really proud of her because she did a fantastic job in some difficult situations, we found ourselves in."
 
While Wesley excels whether on the front row or back, he presence as a pin blocker alongside the freshmen middles Thompson and Jordan Gamble, that continue to impress match after match, will play a key role in Saturday's match. As will her ability to find success offensively against the Cowgirl block.
 
NSU and McNeese are two of the to three blocking teams in the Southland. The Lady Demons lead the league with a 2.48 block per set average and McNeese ranks third at 2.36 per set.
 
"Blocking is an odd skill/stat line," Kiracofe said. "From a numbers standpoint it has very little to do with the overall score of the game, but it can create huge momentum shifts. It's also hard to quantify how important your block can be when the block doesn't touch the ball at all because attackers are hitting easier balls to avoid the block. 
 
"Those balls are easier for the defense which can then be turned into transition points. It's going to be an interesting matchup with two teams that can affect the game that way."