STARKVILLE, Miss. – Strong swings and challenging serves kept Northwestern State from establishing the rhythm it wanted on its side of the night in a 3-0 (25-11, 25-15, 25-20) loss at Mississippi State on Saturday night. 
 
"Our first contact hurt us tonight," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "It will always be difficult to defend against a team with their kind of size. But if you're not also making them work to defend multiple offensive options then it will be hard to keep it close.   
 
"We've added more offense to last year's team but our question mark right now is when will we find the consistency we developed in serve receive at the end of last year. Until we find that, it will be difficult to use all our offensive options. We saw glimpses of it in the third set against a big block and are looking forward to finding more of that consistency with each match." 
 
The Lady Demons (0-3) were forced into more predictable and easier to diagnose offensive options through much of the match, allowing the Bulldog defense to cover those options either at the net or in the backrow.
 
The early aggressive nature from the Mississippi State attack was evident from the start as it scored the first seven points of the match and jumped out to a commanding 10-1 lead.
 
The Demons found some joy in the middle serves of the set with kills from Teresa Garza and Tessa Gerwig, but a finishing 9-1 run from the home team cut off any potential momentum in a hurry.
 
NSU began to find more of its footing in the second set, getting two kills from Jordan Gamble on consecutive swings and another from Teresa Garza on a cross-court feed from Piper Boydstun to take the early 3-2 edge. The Bulldog offense however rebounded with another 9-1 stretch to take the comfortable lead to finish off the second frame.
 
Four NSU attack errors early in the third helped push the Bulldogs into the lead, but the Demons committed just three rest of the set and were able to play cleaner volleyball all around with more consistency, matching the Bulldogs with 17 points each after the early errors.
 
The Demons hung around until a string of Mississippi State miscues provided a late spark of offense, and defense.
 
NSU out blocked the Bulldogs 7-6, getting one from Reaghan Thompson and Gerwig as part of a 6-1 run in the third set that made it a 20-16 game. A solo block from Jordan Gamble, one of her three total blocks of the night, helped bring the Demons within three points moments later. 
 
Two quick kills swung the momentum the other way and the Bulldogs finished off the match with three kills to complete the sweep.
 
Gerwig led the team in kills for the second match in a row and Thompson added four blocks to her season total. Freshman Makenna Tryon saw her first action as a Demon as well, getting her first career dig, kill and ace in the match.
 
NSU returns to action on Monday afternoon for its 2023 home opener against UCLA at 12:30 p.m. inside Prather Coliseum.