NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State's four-match gauntlet with the two Southland Conference South Texas teams, who both rank in the top four in the league standings with 5-2 records, wraps up on Saturday afternoon inside Prather Coliseum.
 
First serve for the second Saturday matchup in a row with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is set for 1 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.
 
Like they were when the teams met a week ago on the island, the Demons are coming off a hard-fought four-set loss to UTRGV. Despite the frustration of the second loss to the Vaqueros within a week in their first home match since Sept. 28, the Demons enter this go-around with the Islanders with a little more pep in their step.
 
On Thursday NSU lost the match due to little things. Small mistakes that, when combined throughout the match, handed over "free" points to a quality UTRGV team. Take shoe miscues away and the Demons stood toe-to-toe with what is widely considered one of the best three teams in the Southland.
 
Northwestern got a combined 16 kills from the middle combination of Deja Benjamin and Samaya Wesson, just like they did in the first meeting with the Vaqueros, and they did so with high efficiency attacking numbers.
 
Reaghan Thompson picked up her eighth double-double of the season with 14 kills and 10 digs, and three other players had seven or more kills on the night, including both middles. In their first match back in a 5-1 formation due to an injury, setter Gabby Seeds ran a smooth offense with 35 assists and set a new career high with four blocks. 
 
Her four block assists were part of the larger 15-block effort by the Demon defense, matching the second most rejections in a single match this year. Only the 16-block match against Jackson State on Sept. 3 saw more.
 
A long list of good things, positive things, the Demons put on display against a quality opponent on Thursday night. They look to do much of the same on Saturday against the speedy Islanders that have won six straight matches overall and five straight in conference play.
 
"Their system is so fast that if you're disorganized or not able to flip the switch in your brain to move from one aspect of the game to the next then all of the sudden they've scored three points," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "We're fortunate in that we just played them, saw some things that worked. So it will be interesting to see how we will be able to learn and retain information to jump into that match and be able to know when things are there that can score and see what we can do to affect Corpus."
 
The Islanders use their speed to put defenses at a disadvantage by forcing them out of position. Their effectiveness at doing so as led to a conference -best .243 team attack percentage for the year. A side effect of the fast offense also leads to more low percentage shots by the opposing offense creating easier defensive chances for the Islanders, which they have taken advantage of as well, leading the league with 16.5 digs per set this year.
 
The swift offensive attack is ushered along by one the best players in the league in senior outside hitter Kyndal Payne. 
 
Payne had 13 kills against the Demons a week ago and followed that up with 13 more on just one error in the Islanders 3-0 road sweep of Texas A&M-Commerce on Thursday. Payne picked up her 12^th kill-dig double-double of the season on Thursday, tying for the team lead with 14 digs to go with her 13 kills.