NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State took its next step towards the start of the 2024 season on Friday night with a home exhibition match against Louisiana Tech.
 
The Bulldogs walked away with the win on the night but the match provided Demon head coach Sean Kiracofe a clearer picture of where his team is at and offered a slightly unexpected surprise as well.
 
"We were one of the best blocking teams in the country last year and honestly I did not expect us to come out and put up the blocking numbers that we did tonight," Kiracofe said. "With that said it was a lot of good individual moments, not necessarily us providing a consistent block to make it easy for our back row to defend. So it was good but some improvements still to be made."
 
The Demons finished the night with 13 total blocks, led by newcomer Deja Benjamin how finished with nine. Junior college transfer Olivia Bush added six blocks and Samaya Wesson, another transfer middle, picked up four.
 
Reigning two-time Southland Conference block champion and NSU single-season record holder in the category Reaghan Thompson, contributed with four rejections while transitioning into a more offensive role on the court.
 
Thompson led the Demons with 18 kills on the night with a .293 hitting percentage on 41 total swings.
 
As a whole however the mix of new players and limited reps with a new setter led to a handful of missed chances on winnable points.
 
"We added Gabby (Seeds) really late in the process," Kiracofe said. "I thought she did a fantastic job but there is still some timing issues to figure out. We've also got some communication things to sort out on the outside but will come with time. It's people in some new positions so stuff that just takes a little more time to get right."
 
Northwestern finished the night with a team attack percentage of .161 with 43 total kills. The Demons had 14 kills in both the first and fourth sets and hit .200 in each of those sets, but managed just 13 total kills in the middle two sets with an attack percentage of .093.
 
"We did some really good things but I feel like we kind of stood in our own way to be able to take some sets and that has to change," Kiracofe said.