NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State finishes the 2024 season with a pair of home matches beginning with Thursday's contest against New Orleans.
 
First serve for the penultimate home match of the season, and white out match, is set for 6:30 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+. Admission to all home NSU volleyball matches is free to fans.
 
With the most recent frustratingly-close loss of the season at HCU this past weekend, the Demons were officially eliminated from Southland Conference Tournament contention. The Demons were one point away on two different occasions from completing the reverse sweep of the Huskies and given them the season sweep of HCU who has a chance to finish fourth in the conference standings.
 
"We're right there and have been right there all year," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "It's been about consistency and making the smart plays. Whether that is being aggressive or just the right thing to do in the situation when it matters. We've been able to do that sometimes and not others."
 
That aggressiveness started in the second set that the Demons nearly won, and took over in the third beginning with each and every first ball attack from the service line. Northwestern had 12 aces in the match against the Huskies, four more than in any other match this season and the most in a conference match since another 12-ace match at Nicholls in 2017.
 
"Serving aggressive puts teams out of system and ultimately that's what you want," libero Ashlyn Svoboda, who had two aces in the match at HCU said. "If they are out of system its easier for your side to take control of the situation. HCU didn't pass well against us later in the match and that's what allowed us to get what we wanted. Serving aggressive is important and we haven't been able to do that as much as we would like so if we can be consistent with it, I think we'll do well this week."
 
That same aggressiveness is what Kiracofe wants to see from his team in the final few sets of the season, especially against a New Orleans team that comes in without a conference win this year.
 
The Privateers have won just two sets during conference play this year, one of them coming in their last match on Saturday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. In the third set they hit a conference-best .389 with just one attack error taking the 26-24 win and extending the match to a fourth set.
 
"We are still going out and competing every match and every point," Kiracofe said. "We're fortunate to be able to finish the season at home after a crazy travel conference season. New Orleans just got a player back from injury that makes them a little better and gives them more options. They have a lefty middle that is different enough that you have to recognize it and defend a little differently. If we can be aggressive with our serves like we were for the vast majority of the HCU match it puts us in a great position to limit them from spreading the ball out."