NATCHITOCHES – Once Northwestern State started rolling on Tuesday night, there was little stopping it in a 3-0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-16) sweep of Texas A&M-Commerce.
 
An out-of-sorts start quickly gave way to what would be a barrage of powerful kills and devastating serves all night for the Demons (12-12, 8-5) who tied a program record with their ninth home win of the season, in 11 tries, and clinched a spot in the Southland Conference Tournament.
 
"We were really able to control things once we settled down and got into it which I was really happy about," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "Our match at their place was really hard. There's really no other way to explain it. It was a battle. So to be able to come back and beat somebody that second time and feel like you had control for the majority of the match is a good feeling."
 
The first handful of serves on the night gave the appearance that it might be a long night for the Demons, falling behind 5-0 out of the gate. After a few runs at what the Lions were running defensively the Demons clicked into gear on a 5-0 run of their own to erase the early deficit and take a 10-9 lead on a Reaghan Thompson ace.
 
The expectation a closely contested match held true for the next several points, with NSU never surrendering the lead, but seeing the Lions tie the set on two different occasions and as late as 18-18.
 
But as the set wore on, the Demons got more and more comfortable in the match and began to impose their will. 
 
Breanna Burrell scored on two kills and connected with Jordan Gamble for a block and a quick 3-1 Demon spurt to move ahead by three. Her effort was part of the larger 7-2 run to win the first set, getting kills from Teresa Garza and Gamble, plus and ace from Piper Boydstun, as part of the finishing 3-0 burst.
 
From that point forward seemingly the only thing in the way of the NSU offense was the floor on the other side of the net. The Demons committed just two errors in the second set, hitting a match-best .345 in the frame, using an 11-2 run early in the second set to run away and hide with the set.
 
"We've been coming into the gym with a bigger purpose the past couple weeks," Garza said. "We've really come together even more off the court and it's really showing on the court. We really wanted this win. I think we played with some nerves in the match at their place and let it get it away from us. This time it was business and we didn't want to mess around."
 
Garza led the team with 12 kills on the night, picking up her 10^th double-double of the season with 12 digs. She finished the second set with a kill to cap a 4-0 run that started with a Madisynne McQueen ace and Gamble ace.
 
Garza was the only Demon to reach double-digits on another sharing-is-caring night where six players had four or more kills in the match with Symone Wesley finishing with eight kills on her birthday and Burrell adding seven, both on 18 attempts.
 
"Our setters did a great job of spreading the ball around," Garza said. "They went to the middles when it was open and pushed it to the pins at the right time. We got a lot of opportunities where there were splits in the block or just beating the block in general. Every single swing we took we were going for a kill so a huge credit to our setters for forcing that offense out of us."
 
Although the third set was more back-and-forth through, NSU used an 8-1 run to sprint to the end with Amina Attra engineering a 6-0 serving run to close the match and end it with NSU's 11^th ace of the night.
 
"We needed to step up and play like we did tonight," Kiracofe said. "In that match in Commerce we played well and then we didn't play well. They are a team that has enough offensive options and ability to change within a match that if you are not on top of what you are doing they will beat you. We needed to have more focus tonight and I think we did that and it paid off."