HOUSTON – Northwestern State got an individual career offensive performance, another efficient swing rate from all its attackers, and some help from the opponent, to pick up a 3-1 (25-23, 25-19, 24-26, 25-23) win against UL Lafayette on Friday afternoon.
 
Teresa Garza led the Demon offense out of an early first-set deficit with eight kills on her way to a career-high 24 in the match on an impressive .388 hitting percentage. 
 
As a team the Demons (4-1) converted at a rate of .242 for the match, the third time this season finishing a match with a percentage higher than .215. The Demons hit over .200 in match seven times all of last season.
 
"What a great match," head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "We gave up a bad matchup to go after what we thought could be some other good matchups and in the long run it paid off. We knew that we could create some favorable situations for people and we were able to step up and execute.
 
"This was the first match of the year where there were some pretty dramatic shifts on what would work for us offensively. I thought that Gabby (Seeds) did a good job getting the ball to the correct people and we had a lot of different players play big rolls when the time called for it."
 
The Cajuns, still riding high off their win from Thursday night against Houston in five set, jumped up scored eight of the first nine points of the match taking a commanding early lead. But the Demons slowly began chipping away thanks to the strong right arm of Garza. 
 
Back-to-back kills in a 5-0 run tied the set at 16 as Garza contributed six of her eight set-one kills within the span of 15 total serves in the match. Her sixth kill of the stretch tied things at 22 and started a 3-0 run to push the Demons over the edge and complete the comeback win.
 
"Honestly, we did not start off the way we wanted to in the first set, but I am beyond proud of how we all came together to push through our errors and find a way to win," Garza said. "We were able to work as a team and it paid off.
 
"I am so proud of how everyone played especially, Gabby (Seeds). I had so much confidence in her and she ran the offense very well. She has been an incredible teammate and great addition to our team. I love these girls and we have so much faith in each other. This is just the beginning. I am so excited to see how we continue growing."
 
The freshman setter Seeds, in just her second match running the entire NSU offense by herself, averaged 11.0 assists per set on the night, added a pair of blocks and kept the Cajun defense honest with two kills on nine error-free swings.
 
The hot finish to the first set carried over into the second as the Demons ran away with the second. NSU hit a match-best .419 in the second set with 17 kills and just four errors, matching the total errors from the first set.
 
The growing confidence of the Demons was not deterred by the Cajuns' comeback to win the third set. A 4-0 Demon run put them ahead 23-22, thanks in part to a pair of ULL hitting errors, the thing that haunted them throughout the match. 
 
ULL committed 30 total errors on the day, 17 of them being unforced. The Demons had 13 blocks in the match, their third double-digit block match of the year.
 
A 4-2 NSU run late in the fourth helped seal the match and featured kills from Garza, Seeds and Reaghan Thompson and an ace from Garza that provided match point. Thompson smashed her 15^th kill of the match for the winner.
 
The win equals the best start to the season by a team under Kiracofe set by the 2019 team that reached the Southland Conference Tournament semifinals and earned a spot in the NIVC postseason tournament.
 
The Demons take on Flo Hyman Classic host Houston on Saturday at 5 p.m. on ESPN+.