HAMMOND, La. – The Northwestern State Demons' volleyball team continues a four-game road trip Thursday at 6:30 p.m. as it takes on the Southeastern Louisiana University Lady Lions in Southland Conference action.

The Demons (1-17, 0-4 SLC) are seeking their first conference win after a pair of road losses last week to UT-Rio Grande Valley (8-7, 3-1 SLC) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (6-10, 2-2 SLC). 

Despite the losses, junior Deja Benjamin recorded her 400^th career kill against A&M-Corpus Christi and finished the match with 11. NSU had 33 kills, their fourth highest total of the season. recorded a .179 hitting percentage, the highest in the last seven matches.

"That (hitting percentage) shows we are starting to slow the game down mentally," said Demon head coach Ben Kaszeta. Now we just have to execute a little better with the decisions that we are making on the court."

Junior Jade Longlad continues to lead the Southland in aces with 33 and is 15^th in the country in the category.

"Jade worked relentlessly on her serve," said Kaszeta. "And it shows because her ball has a lot of movement on it. But she got to that point because she has spent extra time on it. She can be specific on exactly where she wants to serve it. She has come up here and spent extra time at 10 and 11 o'clock at night and it shows every time she steps to the line."

The Lady Lions (11-5, 3-1 Southland) enters Thursday contest undefeated at home (6-0) under first-year head coach Lee McBride. SLU is led by junior Kyra McKelvey with 193 kills, fourth in the conference.

Southeastern is coming off a road loss Saturday to league-leading Stephen F. Austin (9-6, 4-0 SLC) 3-0 which snapped a seven-game winning streak for SLU.

As for the series, SLU won the only matchup last season, 3-0 and has won seven of the last eight matches over the Demons. NSU's win came in five sets on Sept. 14, 2023.