HAMMOND, La. – Just two days removed from one of the most difficult days following the death of fellow student-athlete and friend Ronnie Caldwell, Northwestern State volleyball took another step towards healing with a solid performance against one of the best teams in the conference.
 
The Demons (9-12, 5-5), the best blocking team in the league, rejected 14 attacks on the day, the 11^th double-digit block match of the season. It was Southeastern's nine unforced errors and 16 kills per set, however, despite the NSU block, that led to a 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-16) win for the Lions.
 
"Thursday was a difficult match with everyone coming to terms with the tragic loss of Ronnie Caldwell," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "After having some time to gather ourselves we came out more composed than we did then. In addition to the emotional weight of Ronnie's passing, this is now the second match we have played without Tessa (Gerwig). We are still working to find the best lineup to replace everything she gave us both offensively and defensively, which is not an easy thing to accomplish. 
 
"Obviously, the block was great all day but we made some key mistakes that prevented us from taking set one and the again in set two when we worked our way back into position to win. Outside of some mistakes, we were not able to turn some great defense into offensive opportunities. If you keep giving the number one team in the standings enough opportunities they will eventually find a way to turn them into points."
 
The Demons established their prowess at the net from the very beginning of the match, collecting five blocks within their first 15 points of the day, with the third ranked blocker in the nation smack in the middle of the start.
 
Reaghan Thompson started the day with a solo rejection then connected with Breanna Burrell once and Teresa Garza three times to give NSU a 15-10 lead at the media break. A Lion error and ace from Amina Attra stretched the Demon lead to seven just after the break.
 
The Lions closed the gap quickly with a 5-0 run and with the Demons clinging to the smaller lead put together another 4-0 stretch to take a late lead. SLU had three kills in each of the scoring runs to fuel the comeback.
 
A Garza kill and Lion error evened the set at 23, but it was immediately followed by a Demon error and Lion kill to end the set.
 
After falling behind early in the second set on a 6-0 Lion run, the Demons stormed back with four straight points on a kill from Garza and two straight blocks from Thompson and Madisynne McQueen. A third block in the span of five serves, this time from Thompson and Garza, got the Demons within a point at 16-15.
 
NSU got its 10^th block of the match on its 14^th point of the second set, with Thompson involved in every one of them for her third double-digit blocking match of the season and the sixth of her career.
 
The teams traded points over the next handful of serves, until the Lions' Kailin Newsome took over offensively accounting for four kills in the final six SLU points, and the final four to close the set and take a 2-0 match lead.
 
Newsome had four more kills within the first five points of the third for the Lions as part of an early 5-0 run to take the lead. She carried the offense through the rest of the set with six kills and just one error and a near .278 team hitting percentage. NSU had three more blocks in the third set but not enough to negate the Lion efficiency.
 
Piper Boydstun turned in her sixth double-double of the season with 10 assists and 14 digs. Symone Wesley added 11 digs to reach the 1,000 mark for her career, needing just four more to become the 11^th player to record 1,000 digs for NSU.