NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State used all the weapons in its arsenal on Saturday to pick up a 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-19) sweep of Nicholls and first Southland Conference win of the year.
 
The Demons (6-5, 1-1) had five players with five or more kills in the three-set match, none of them reaching double-digits, and five players taking between 10 and 20 swings on the day. Only Teresa Garza's 34 attempts surpassed the 20 mark as she tied for the match lead with Deja Benjamin with nine kills.
 
"Teresa and Reaghan (Thompson) are able to put up superstar numbers be we can't expect them to do that every single match," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "Other people have to produce and we were able to do that today. White two and a half to three points a set doesn't blow you away, when everyone is doing it then it's impossible to defend. If we can get this kind of consistent production from everyone else we're going to be able to do a lot of things."
 
Back-to-back kills from Olivia Bush and back-to-back blocks where middle Deja Benjamin connected with Bush and Thompson bookended a 6-0 NSU run in the first set that set the tone for the match the Demons played on Saturday.
 
It gave NSU a 15-9 lead setting the stage for seven more kills over the next 15 points from everyone except for Garza allowing the Demons to control the first frame. Bush got the third of her six kills of the day in the final four points with Samaya Wesson and Benjamin each adding one of their own for the 25-20 set win.
 
Garza was held to just one kill in the opening frame but locked into her typical form in the second exploding for seven kills on 14 attempts with just one error to lead the offense. She had three kills as part of NSU's 5-1 run last in the second that turned a two-point game into a 20-15 Demon lead. Her final two of the set accounted for the final two points the Demons needed to take the 25-21 set win and 2-0 lead in the match.
 
The Demons had 15 kills in the first set and 16 in the second with identical .286 team attack percentages. Garza and Benjamin paced the balanced Demon attack through the first two sets with eight kills each.
 
"We spread things out so well today and our setters did a great job of spreading the ball out, giving us splits in the block and our defense did a great job of giving the setters the opportunity to do that," Garza said. "All around it was a really good job from everyone."
 
NSU setters Amina Attra and Gabby Seeds distributed the ball nearly evenly among the six attackers in the 6-2 formation the Demons employed on the day. They produced nearly identical assist numbers with Seeds picking up 18 and Attra 17. The senior Attra also added a pair of kills on dump plays during the match finding the hole in the middle of the Colonel defense.
 
With a rotation of six attackers allowing for a more substantial block at the next with every rotation, the Demon defense held Nicholls to a .097 hitting percentage in the match, picking up nine blocks along the way, the most in a match for NSU since the 13 it had against UL Lafayette on Sept. 3.
 
Three of the pin hitters – Bush, Garza and Thompson – had three block assists in the match connecting with Benjamin four time and Wesson five times in the middle.
 
"Running a 6-2 really helps us be bigger on the net and when the blockers are in the right position it helps us defensively know where to be and what to do," Svoboda said. "Having a bigger block up there today really helped us today."
 
The defense held Nicholls' top offensive option Leah Linares Castro to just six kills, matching the second lowest total on the season.
 
The Demons' 9-1 scoring run early in the third set erased a deficit and put the momentum squarely back in their corner. NSU never relinquished the lead from that point forward, and despite a dip in overall offensive production from the previous two sets, had six kills over the final 13 points to secure the win.