EDINBURG, Texas – Northwestern State put together one of its most complete opening sets of the season on Thursday night to take a 1-0 lead in the match at UTRGV.
The Demons hit a match-best .379, had no unforced errors, got production from multiple sources and forced the high-powered Vaquero offense into a match-low .156 attack percentage with eight errors.
While they continued to get the offensive production from the outside and a huge boost from the middle the rest of the night, ill-timed errors and UTRGV finding its offensive form led to a 3-1 (19-25, 25-16, 25-16, 25-20) loss in NSU's first Southland Conference match against the Vaqueros.
"For the most part we played really well against a good team," head coach
Sean Kiracofe said. "We felt that we could win the match up in the middle, and both Deja (Benjamin) and Samaya (Wesson) stepped up to that challenge. Our ball control just didn't allow us to isolate the middles and other matchups consistently enough. Add in some unforced errors in a few key moments and it's difficult to beat good teams.
"In the big picture, this is the best we have played since conference started with room to improve. The challenge now is to maintain that level of play and build on it."
Fueled by a 10-2 run in the opening set, Northwestern recovered from an early deficit and seized control of the match in one fell swoop. Four attack errors from UTRGV plus a pair of Demon blocks during the run accounted for six of the eight Vaquero errors in the set and all occurred during the critical NSU run.
Kills from
Deja Benjamin and
Madisynne McQueen stretched the Demon lead to 15-9 at the media break.
The kill from Benjamin was her first of the match as the Demons continued to feed her and Wesson in favorable situations throughout the night. Benjamin and Wesson combined for five kills on seven error-free swings in the opening set. The finished the night with 16 total kills, eight each for the transfers in their first year at NSU, and hit a combined .437 on the night. Benjamin hit over .600 for the first time in her career with eight kills on 13 attempts with no errors.
Teresa Garza scored on consecutive swings to make it a 21-13 edge for Wesson and Benjamin to each score over the final four points to give NSU the 25-19 first set win.
The duo were held to limited touches through the second and third sets as the Vaquero hitters became more accurate and forceful with their swings. After eight errors in the first set alone, UTRGV committed eight total over the each of the middle two sets and only three not caused by an NSU block.
With the match tied at one set each, the Demons put together another long scoring run in the third to erase and early deficit. Three straight kills from
Reaghan Thompson, Garza and Benjamin followed by an ace and another Garza kills brought NSU within a point at 13-12. From that point forward though the Demons committed five of their seven attack errors in the set preventing them from keeping the final serves close.
The Demons recaptured their play from the opening set in the fourth and took a 13-12 lead after a 4-0 burst that saw two more kills from the middle. But a pair of errors on the ensuing 6-1 UTRGV run provided enough cushion for the final 25-20 margin.
Garza led the Demons with 10 kills with Thompson, Benjamin and Wesson each adding eight on the night. Setters
Amina Attra and
Gabby Seeds both finished the night with 18 assists and
Ashlyn Svoboda led the team with 16 digs and is six away from passing Megan Lohmiller for fifth on NSU's career digs leaderboard.
