NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Northwestern State's stretch of four road matches over the course of five contests continues on Saturday when it makes its way across Toldeo Bend to Stephen F. Austin. 

 

The Demons will play their first match in SFA's Shelton Gym in a non-COVID impacted season since 2018 when it faces the second-ranked Ladyjacks. NSU lost in straight sets in March of 2021, the last time the two teams met. 

 

First serve is set for 12 p.m. on Saturday and can be seen on ESPN+. 

 

In perhaps their toughest road contest of the conference season, the Demons take on one of the best defensive teams in the Southland. SFA's stout defense ranks them in the top three in the conference in blocks, as well as the lowest opponent hitting percentage, kills and aces allowed so far this year. 

 

In their previous five wins on the season the Ladyjacks have held opponents to hitting percentages of .180 or lower. The only team to surpass that mark in the past month was when Southeastern hit .215 in a reverse sweep victory a week ago. 

 

The Demons will look for a cleaner offensive showing against the tough SFA defense than it has produced during the month of October. 

 

In Thursday's loss at Lamar, the Demons found themselves in winnable territory tied with the Cardinals at 20 in both the second and third sets. While all the points from that point forward in the match weren't decided by errors where the ball landed outside the line or flew into the net, things like over passes or free balls by the Demons opened the door for the Lamar attackers to take advantage. 

 

"It's been the errors that don't really show themselves in the box score that have hurt us lately," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "That's what happened in a lot of cases against UTRGV and Corpus the past two weeks and again against Lamar.  
  
"We'll play well at the beginning of points to create favorable situations but then not able to capitalize, whether that is off our first touch, timing on offense or the choice on our swing. The things that we need to clean up is a bit of a moving target, which makes it difficult to fix. Different errors are presenting themselves in those key moments." 

 

The Demon offense has shown plenty of bursts of efficiency even during the missteps over the past month. 

 

Teresa Garza had five kills in each of the first two sets against the Cardinals with just one error and Deja Benjamin has had five or more kills in each of the past five matches, only playing three rotations with the other middle Samaya Wesson taking the other. Benjamin leads the team with a .353 hitting percentage and has had one or fewer attack errors six times in the past seven matches.