NATCHITOCHES – Head coach Sean Kiracofe's emphasis on finding ways to win and fighting through every point this season paid off for Northwestern State on Tuesday night.
 
The Demons (3-1) picked up the win in their 2024 home opener with a five-set battle that needed every bit of endurance and will to win to come away with the 3-2 (25-21, 23-25, 25-21, 19-25, 15-12) victory over a scrappy and physical Jackson State.
 
"Good wins, ugly wins, find a way to win that moment, whatever it is win that moment that you are in and to be able to push through a tough match like tonight and win is great," Kiracofe said. "Jackson State played incredibly well and getting a win like this early in the season is just going to help up down the road and in conference."
 
On a night where little separated the two teams from set to set, it was Northwestern's biggest strength that helped push it over the edge when the points mattered the most.
 
With a 2-1 lead in the match following a 25-21 win in the third set where the Demons' dynamic and explosive duo of outside hitters, Teresa Garza and Reaghan Thompson, totaled 12 kills on 25 total swings with just one error, NSU could not put away the feisty Tigers.
 
JSU put together a match-best .300 attack percentage in the fourth set with 16 kills, equalling the total the Demons put up in the third, with only four errors. Outisde hitter Alexis Williams had six kills on 13 error-free swings, immediately following a set with no kills and three errors on five swings.
 
She finished the night with 13 kills, second behind Jayden James' 17 to lead the Tigers. A 13-1 run in the fourth set put all the momentum in the hands of the visitors as they forced a decisive fifth set, holding off a late Demon rally.
 
"Huge compliment to their pin players, specifically their outsides and the right side Hope Briggs," Kiracofe said. "They moved the ball around. We would change defenses and they would instantly put a ball where we were not and scored. They found hands on the block, and we had great blocking numbers, but they were able to find hands and score that way. They absolutely made us work for it."
 
The Tigers' offensive momentum ran into a proverbial brick wall however in the fifth set as the Demon block produced in big ways in the shortened critical set.
 
Five blocks accounted for a third of NSU's points in the frame with Deja Benjamin leading the charge on four of them, connecting with Olivia Bush on two of her three and Thompson on another. Benjamin and Bush both finished with 10 blocks in the match, career highs for both players and the first time in program history two players finished with double-digit blocks in a single match.
 
The Demons held Jackson State to a .000 hitting percentage in the fifth set as Garza and Thompson helped finish the match for NSU offensively.
 
After a slow start to the match Garza finished with 17 kills, getting 14 of those in the final three sets. Thompson picked up her second 20-kill match of the season setting a new career high with 23 on the night. Both outsides hit over .215 on the night and had kill-dig double-doubles.
 
"I hit some high ball in the middle so front row is getting there and been more comfortable there," Thompson said of her fourth match as an outside hitter. "A lot of that credit goes to our setters. Gabby (Seeds) played all the way around today and obviously every ball had to come from her so credit to her and she's just a freshman. Very proud of her."
 
The Demons took an early lead in the fifth, but trailed at the turn following a rare error from Garza. The Tigers took a 9-7 lead, their largest of the set, before kills from Samaya Wesson and Thompson and a block from Benjamin and Seeds pushed the Demons ahead on the 3-0 burst.
 
"You don't have time to get down in the fifth set because it's really hard to come back," Thompson said. "So I went into the huddle and said 'every point matters, we need to be on the gas pedal from point one.' We were battling there early but found a way to pull through."
 
Seeds also set a new best with 46 assists in her first match running the offense entirely by herself, adding 11 digs for her first career double-double. Libero Ashlyn Svoboda earned her first 20-dig match of the season with 22 and matched for the team lead with Thompson with two aces.