HAMMOND – Northwestern State will try and channel its best Daniel on Saturday as it enters both a metaphorical and somewhat literal lion's den.
 
While there won't be any actual lions on hand for Saturday's 11 a.m. match against Southeastern that will stream live on ESPN+, the Lady Lions in green and gold are playing with just as much ferocity.
 
Winners of 11 straight matches and 33 of their last 36 sets, Southeastern sit atop the Southland Conference standings at 8-1 and rank among the top three in five different offensive categories and in the top five in most defensive rankings.
 
Their one blemish in league play this season however and their last loss, came a month ago, in Prather Coliseum, against the Demons.
 
Not surprisingly for the Demons this season it was the blocking effort that drastically flipped the match played a month ago after NSU fell behind 2-1. One of the highest single-set block totals on the year of eight in the fourth set propelled the Demons to the fifth where they added four more rejections, adding eight kills and no unforced errors, to get the 3-2 win.
 
NSU finished with 17 blocks, the most in a match on the season at the time, capping a stretch of four straight matches with 10 or more blocks and the most, 54, blocks in a four-match stretch in program history.
 
The Demons will look to recapture that again on Saturday after a rare light blocking performance on Thursday against McNeese.
 
NSU had just two blocks against the Cowgirls, matching the lowest total in a match this season, and were out blocked for just the fourth time this season, dropping their record to 1-3 in those matches. The match came directly following a 19-block outing against UIW, the second most this season and the second most in a single match in program history.
 
 The block will attempt to slow down the efficient SLU attack that are coming off of a .354 outing on Thursday at Lamar, the fourth match with a hitting percentage greater than .340 in the past six matches. Over their last three matches however the Lions have had 29 attacks blocked, the most in a three match stretch this year.
 
"They got past a big hurdle in Houston Christian so their focus is on us and looking for that revenge match performance," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "This is their Homecoming Day so they are going to have a good crowd there and it'll be a challenge for sure. We've got to put that one at McNeese behind us and go out there with purpose and focused on what we need to do to be successful."
 
NSU hit .243 in five sets against Southeastern a month ago, with three sets higher than .280, led by Teresa Garza's 19 kills and .378 efficiency. That started a stretch of five straight matches with attack percentages over .220. Over the past six matches the Demons have topped .200 as team just once, in their five-set win against Lamar.