NATCHITOCHES –
Elsie Sanchez had a career-high 28 kills as the Northwestern State Demons outlasted the Houston Christian University Huskies in five-set thriller (23-25, 27-25, 25-22, 18-25 and 15-11) Thursday night at Prather Coliseum.
With the win, the Demons (13-13, 5-6 SLC) swept the regular season series over the Huskies (5-18, 3-8 SLC) for the first time in program history.
Sanchez, a sophomore, became the first Demons since Nov. 23, 2019, to record 25 or more kills when Hannah Brister had 25. The Tarragona, Spain native was phenomenal as she finished with a .333 hit percentage for the match (28-7-63).
"Honestly, I didn't feel that energized at first," said Sanchez. "But somewhere in the match I had an energy boost, and it all started to work for me. I can't really explain but I'm glad to be able to help us win tonight."
NSU was also led by senior
Jade Longlad who had a career-high 55 assists as she now has 1,269 career assists. Her previous high mark was 47 against Southeastern in a five-set loss on Oct. 1 of this year.
Sanchez and Longlad were not alone as
Amber Craig added 13 kills while
Elizabeth Muguruza recorded her first career double-double with 15 digs and 12 kills.
Emmarie McFarland continued her stellar defensive season for the Demons with 31 digs as she remains second in the Southland in digs per set (4.83 dps).
As for the match, after NSU dropped the first set the Demons turned to Sanchez in crunch time of the second set. With the match tied at 25-25, Sanchez recorded back-to-back kills to tie the match at 1-1.
In the third set, NSU and HCU were tied at 22-22 when Sanchez's kill gave the Demons the lead. NSU took advantage of back-to-back attack errors by the Huskies to clinch the second set.
The fourth set slipped away late from the Demons as HCU scored seven of the last nine points to win 25-18 setting up a fifth set.
With the match tied at 9-9 in the fifth set, NSU got back-to-back kills by
Olivia Nzioki and Sanchez to take an 11-9 lead. Later in the set with the Demons leading 13-11,
Kenadii Winfrey's kill gave NSU match point. Fittingly, it was Sanchez and Longlad who clinched the match. Longlad's 55
th assist set up Sanchez for her 28
th kill as the Demons picked up the thrilling win.
"That was a weird match," said Demon head coach
Ben Kaszeta. "There were just a lot of weird things that don't generally happen. But I'm proud of us for keeping our composure throughout a very intense match. Basically, what we took from this is one is that 'we can.' We can win matches, we can take different shots, we can do a lot of different things. After last year when people would look at our record and say "oh its Northwestern State who cares" but now teams know that we are going to compete every single game.
Next up, the Demons will be back at home to face the UIW Cardinals (11-9, 9-2 SLC) Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. The Cardinals beat East Texas A&M (9-15, 3-8 SLC) 3-1 on the road Thursday night.
