STEPHENVILLE, Texas – The Northwestern State Demons' volleyball team lost a pair of matches to the New Mexico Lobos 3-0 (25-19, 25-13 and 25-15) and 3-1 to the Prairie View A&M Panthers (29-27, 25-18, 24-26 and 25-17) Friday afternoon at the Tarleton State Classic.

The Demons (1-3) competed well in the first set against New Mexico. NSU took advantage of six attack errors early on as the match was tied midway through the set at 12-12.

The Lobos, however, took control of the set as they went on to close the set on a 13-7 run. In set two, UNM was in control from the outset taking a 16-8 lead on its way to taking set two and set three convincingly.

NSU was led in the first game by Elsie Sanchez Oliver with nine kills. Reagan Hamm finished the match with 13 assists and three blocks. Deja Benjamin added seven kills and three blocks Jade Longlad chipped in with 11 assists while Emmarie McFarland had 12 digs.

In game two, the Demons found themselves in a 24-19 hole late in the first set. However, they rallied back to tie the match at 24 after fending off five straight set points. Longlad and Hamm both had four assists in the set while Sanchez Oliver had three kills. But it wasn't quite enough as the Panthers broke a 27-27 tie with a kill and an ace to clinch the first set.

The second set started off where the first set left off with both teams going back and forth. The match was tied six times in the first 12 points of the second frame before the Panthers pulled away for a 17-10 lead and a 25-18 set win.

NSU rallied back in the third set as it broke a 24-24 tie with back-to-back kills by Benjamin to give the Demons the set three win.

However, in the fourth set the Panthers took control as they got out to a 14-5 advantage and never looked back on the way to the win.

"I'm proud of our effort today," said Demon head volleyball coach Ben Kaszeta. "I'm glad we have a passionate gritty group of young ladies. We are learning what it takes to win at the Division I level and are getting one percent better every day."

The Demons were led by Benjamin with 13 kills while Sanchez Oliver had 10. NSU finished the match with 39 kills while the Panthers had 49.