NEW ORLEANS – Northwestern State extended its winning streak to six on Thursday with a hard-fought 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-17) road sweep of New Orleans.
The victory is the third in a row in straight sets for the Demons (6-7, 2-0) and the fourth in the last five matches. It also matches the longest streak from a year ago that included the final four matches of the regular season and the first two of the conference tournament.
The Demons employed every bit of the fight and determination they've shown in recent five-set matches down the stretch of the first two sets against the feisty Privateers on Thursday in New Orleans.
A late UNO nearly erased a five-point Demon lead and after a razor-thin second set where neither team led by more than two points through the 20-point threshold, the Demons went on a 6-1 run to close out the set for a 2-0 match lead.
"Road wins are always difficult in conference, so we're always happy get our first," head coach
Sean Kiracofe said. "UNO played well and did a good job hitting around our block, so we needed to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves. I was proud of the team for being able to stay composed at the end of each of the close sets."
NSU jumped out to an early 7-3 lead in the first set and stretched the advantage to as much as six on a couple of occasions late in the frame. A pair of blocks from
Jordan Gamble and a kill from
Teresa Garza gave the Demons the half-dozen point lead with Garza making it a 20-14 set.
Two more Garza kills later, the final two of her six in the opening set, and the Demons had a 22-17 lead, but a pair of NSU service errors and a pair of UNO kills tightened things up with the Privateers pulling within a point at 24-23, holding of two straight set point attempts.
After a timeout it took just one serve, pass and set for Gamble to send home the set winner with her first clutch kill of the night.
The strong UNO finish set the table for what was a grueling back-and-forth second set with neither team giving an inch on either offense of defense.
Both teams had a sideout percent greater than 64 in the set, with 16 total for both teams. After 11 ties and six lead changes the Privateers held a 21-19 edge on the ninth kill of the set from Karen Cordero Barr, who finished with a match-best 18 kills.
A fifth kill of the set from Garza, a perfectly timed and executed dump from
Amina Attra and a thunderous kill from
Reaghan Thompson flipped the lead one final time and along with it the momentum of the match.
NSU rattled off six of the next seven points to take the second set 25-22 and a commanding 2-0 lead overall.
Like they did to close out the Battle for the Boot in the sweep of ULM, the Demons went to work in their strongest set performance of the night not letting any momentum slip away. NSU created 19 of the needed 25 point on their own accord with 12 kills, on just one error, four service aces and three blocks, leaving very little margin for error to the Privateers.
A 5-1 stretch late in the set showcased all aspects of the Demons' quality on the night with a Garza kill, Atta ace and a pair of blocks from
Breanna Burrell and Garza and another from Burrell and Thompson.
The relentless NSU offense had five players with five or more kills on the night led by Garza's 14. No player that took more than 20 offensive swings had more than two attack errors on the night and every player that had a kill, had a hitting percentage of .200 or higher.
NSU returns to Prather Coliseum on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. to face Nicholls looking for a win to tie the second longest winning streak in program history with the 1992 team, and be one shy of matching the longest winning streak of eight matches set in 2012 and tied in 2019.
