NEW ORLEANS – Winners of five straight matches, it's clear that Northwestern State has gained the momentum it was looking for at a very ideal time.
 
After a perfect home stand where the Demons (5-7, 1-0) won four matches, including three straight set sweeps, the next phase of the season begins with the first conference road trip of the season to New Orleans.
 
First serve against UNO is set for 6:30 p.m. and will be streamed live on ESPN+.
 
NSU picked up an early signature win a week ago when it knocked off defending Southland Conference Tournament champion Southeastern in five sets. A remarkable run of 12 blocks in the final two sets of the match helped seal the deal and, based on the two performances that followed the next two days, leveled up the Demons' overall play.
 
A team-effort sweep of Louisiana Tech on Friday and an ultra-convincing sweep of ULM closed the perfect week with both matches showing much more of what head coach Sean Kiracofe has seen in practice translating to game day – a dynamic and effective offense.
 
Last week the Demons had three different players lead the team in kills across four matches. Breanna Burrell had just eight kills to lead the Demons in the win against Grambling and there were six double-digit kill performances total during the week. There were 10 different instances however of kills between five and nine during the week.
 
"It's so much fun to go out there right now," setter Amina Attra said. "I actually played with Teresa (Garza) in high school so it's cool to have her back on the same team as me. She's a super versatile player and can kind of be that go-to when we need it."
 
Garza led the charge in the win against Southeastern with 19 kills, the most in a match for the Demons since Breanna Burrell's 19-kill match against UT Arlington two years ago. But the thing that has made one of the biggest differences for the Demons over the past two weeks is the effectiveness of so many of their offensive options.
 
Tessa Gerwig averaged 12.3 kills per match during the final three matches of last week and has double-figure kills in each of her last four matches, a new career-best streak. Burrell (9.2) and Garza (9.7) each put in nearly 10 kills per match during the week as well that helped give the Demons their best-three match team hitting percentage of the season.
 
NSU hit better than .224 in the wins against Southeastern, Louisiana Tech and ULM, topping out at .286 against the Warhawks, the highest team total since a home sweep of Houston Christian in 2021.
 
While the Demons upgraded this past week, they are still looking to refine and improve as they hit the bulk of SLC play this week.
 
"We're working really hard on serve receive to try get perfect passes, or as close as we can get to perfect," Attra said. "If we can do that we can start running more plays, maybe some trick plays, and things like that to make it that much more of a challenge for our opponents."