CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – For the vast majority of Thursday's match Northwestern State played sound defense and dynamic offense.
 
When the Demons finish their weeklong, 2000-mile excursion across west and southern Texas on Saturday, they will look for that same offensive production with a slightly faster defensive response.
 
Northwestern takes on one of the quickest offensive units in the Southland Conference that is led by one of the best players in the league over the past three years in Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and senior outside Kyndal Payne.
 
First serve of Saturday's match is set for 1 p.m. and can be seen live on ESPN+.
 
"It's a speed game with them," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "If you take mental breaks during points or during transition, you're going to lose. We have done a great job at times of being able to prevent that from happening and beat them. But when you're not on top of what you're doing on a consistent basis they've scored five to 10 points before you know it and we've been on that side of it too. 
 
"So which one is going to show up first. Are we going to be on top of what we're doing and execute from a game plan standpoint, or do we see it the first time, it doesn't work and see how engaged we have to be when we see them again next week."
 
The Demons will look to lean into what they saw on Thursday night from an offensive perspective to not only slow down the Islander attack but also limit their opportunity to run at the speed they would like.
 
Northwestern got 16 kills from their two middles, Deja Benjamin and Samaya Wesson, against UTRGV and hit over .400 combined in the match. Both transfers got eight kills each on the night and added a combined eight blocks, maintaining the Demons standing near the top of the conference blocking totals.
 
Their totals are the exact level of production to complement what Teresa Garza and Reaghan Thompson have continued to provide this season of more than 2.5 kills and 3.0 points per set.
 
The Demons' big hitters on the outside will compete against the big two for Corpus in Payne and one of the most offensive minded middles in the league in Leah Stolfus.
 
Stolfus is averaging 3.1 kills per set and hitting .433 over the past four matches for the Islanders, all four wins that include three straight in conference play. Payne had her string of seven straight matches with 10 or more kills, and subsequently her six-match double-double snapped on Thursday with a season low seven kills against Commerce.
 
The Islanders are playing their third match of the week after thrilling five-set win at UTRGV on Tuesday and Thursday night's four-set win against A&M-Commerce.