NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State Demons' volleyball team were edged by the Southeastern Louisiana Lions in five sets (25-19, 21-25, 20-25, 25-18 and 15-8) Thursday night at Prather Coliseum in the first of four straight Southland Conference home games.
The Demons (9-9, 1-2 SLC) trailed 15-12 in the first set, going into the first media timeout. The Lions (5-11, 2-1 SLC) maintained a lead of 22-17 late in the first set thanks to five kills from Kyra McKelvey before winning the set 25-19.
NSU came out strong in the second set leading 6-1. However, the Lions rallied back to cut it to 15-14 Demons at the media timeout setting up a competitive finish to the frame.
Elsie Sanchez, who achieved her 300
th career kill Thursday for NSU, had nine kills with the Demons lead 19-16. NSU added to the lead after a terrific play at the net by
Kenadii Winfrey for the block making 20-16. Back-to-back aces by Sanchez put the Demons in front 22-17. The Lions scored four straight points to cut it to 22-21. But a couple of huge kills by
Amber Craig and
Olivia Nzioki gave NSU set point, 24-21. NSU would take the set on the next play on an attack error, 25-21.
In the third set, the Demons got out to a 12-8 lead as Sanchez continued to dominate. She had 10 kills and four aces midway through the third set. After SLU cut the Demons' lead to 14-13, NSU got two kills from Sanchez and one from Winfrey. Then, SLU committed two attack errors to get the momentum back in NSU's favor 22-15. After kills by
Gillian Grace Wolf and Craig, the Demons had set point at 24-20 when Nzioki finished it off with her seventh kill of the night.
The fourth set had the Demons with an early 5-1 lead following NSU's first kill of the match, a beautiful play Nzioki. However, later in the set the Lions began to take over as they led 19-13 after a 6-1 run and then led 21-14 following an ace and kill by Kyra McKelvey. The Demons cut the Lions' fourth set lead to 22-18. But three straight attack errors by the Demons sent the match to a fifth set.
NSU fell behind in the fifth set 5-1 after a miscommunication on a set, an ace by Melina Gonzalez and another kill by McKelvey. After a kill by Sanchez stopped the momentum for SLU briefly, the Demons trailed 12-5 and never recovered falling 15-8 in the fifth set.
"We have to learn how to push through when things get tough," said Demon head coach
Ben Kaszeta. "That's a well-season team over there in Southeastern with a bunch of seniors. We just have to learn how to score in tough situations and how to take a punch. They came out in set 1 and set 5 and just ran us over. So, we have to learn to punch back when it gets like that."
The Demons were led offensively by Sanchez with 18 kills and Craig with 15 as both tied their career highs while Nzioki had 10.
Jade Longlad had 47 assists which tied her career high as well. The senior is now three away from 1,000 career assists.
Emmarie McFarland had 19 digs for 18
th straight game this year with 10 or more digs. McKelvey finished the match with 18 kills to lead SLU.
Next up, the Demons will host LSU New Orleans (2-14, 0-3 SLC) Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Prather Coliseum. LSUNO was defeated earlier Thursday by East Texas A&M (8-8, 2-1 SLC) in four sets.
"They are a Division I program with Division I athletes," said Kaszeta. "I don't care what their record says, they beat us badly at their place last year, so we need to be ready to come out Saturday and play."
