NATCHITOCHES – After a promising start in a tense first-set victory, Northwestern State was found searching for that same result the rest of the way in a 3-1 (25-27, 25-15, 25-17, 25-14) loss to UIW.
The Demons smashed their way through the first set on all fronts led by a Herculean performance from
Reaghan Thompson. NSU hit a match-best .226 with 18 kills, 30 digs and four blocks to pick up the clutch 27-25 win.
The next three sets though, the Cardinals took advantage of the space created in the NSU defense behind well-placed serves.
"It really came down to the same thing that hurt us when we played them there – serve receive" head coach
Sean Kiracofe said. "We passed well and gave ourselves options and we played really good defense. Those last three sets we put ourselves in bad situations in serve receive and made some bad errors. But that was a matter of us being a little bit out of control and uncomfortable because we weren't passing in serve receive well."
UIW hit .384 over the final three sets of the match after being held to a .145 clip in the first set thanks to elite Demon defense.
Led by Thompson's 10 digs in the set and backed up by libero
Ashlyn Svoboda's eight, the Demons collected 30 digs in the first set to keep plays alive and give the offense more chances to score.
Entering the match Svoboda needed four digs to pass NSU volleyball legend, and her former coach, Stacey DiFrancesco (Aldredge) for third on the career digs list. Svoboda got the four she needed within the first few serves of the match and went on to collect 20 more for a season-high 24 on the night.
Thompson was equally as locked in offensively to start the match smashing eight kills on 16 swings to lead the Demons to their match-best .226 hitting percentage in the frame.
Teresa Garza and
Deja Benjamin scored on three swings with
Olivia Bush picking two kills on four attempts. Thompson was also in on all four blocks the Demons got in the first.
"It really didn't feel like we had one person out there doing crazy things," Kiracofe said. "I thought everybody was doing a really good job of just doing their job. They were playing hard and continuing rallies and taking advantage of getting a second or third ball in a rally and doing something better with it."
Facing set point down 24-23, Thompson picked up her eighth kill of the set to even things at 24 which was followed by a Garza ace. UIW held off a set point of their own with a kill but a quick attack from setter
Gabby Seeds gave the Demons the next chance to win the frame which they did on a block from Thompson and Wesson.
In each of the next three sets, the Cardinals took early leads and extended them with longer-than-normal serving runs, keeping the pressure on the Demons the rest of the way.
Down by double digit in the third following one of those serving runs, the Demons put together a long stretch of their own thanks to a kill from Bush that began a 5-0 run that turned into a 7-2 stretch overall.
Bush had a pair of kills and a pair of blocks in the that run to punctuate what was an impressive night for the sophomore transfer. She finished with nine kills, a new career best, on 27 error-free swings with three blocks.
"Olivia had a great match tonight," Kiracofe said. "This is something we've know she's capable of and for her to go out there and do what she did is fantastic. Unrealistic to expect that all the time, but she's fully capable of double-digit kills in every match we play. She scored in different ways and smart with how she moved the ball around."
The run fell short in the third and despite gaining momentum late in the frame, the Demons saw things slip away with nine straight Cardinal points in the fourth to led the visitors to the win.
Thompson finished the night with 20 kills to lead all players and extended her double-double streak to four straight matches. Garza and Bush each had nine kills on the night and Seeds just missed a double-double of her own with nine digs to accompany her 39 assists.
