EDINBURG, Texas – Senior
Jade Longlad's 54 assists along with freshman
Olivia Nzioki's 18 kills helped propel the Northwestern State Demons volleyball team to up a huge road win Saturday afternoon over the UT- Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros 3-1 (25-22, 26-24, 21-25 and 26-24) at UTRGV Fieldhouse.
The Demons (14-15, 6-8 SLC) also got a career-high 15 kills from
Elizabeth Muguruza while
Elsie Sanchez added 12. Defensively, the Demons were terrific as they finished with 73 digs led by
Emmarie McFarland with 18. Freshman
Anna Claire Hebert added a career-high 15 while freshman
Valerie Brown had 10.
"The littles showed up and showed out today," said Demon head coach
Ben Kaszeta. "They were little floor sweepers. Fighting hard and digging everything today. Great defensive effort on all parts today."
The Vaqueros (14-11, 10-4 SLC) were led by Martina Franco with 15 kills while Juliana Bryant had 13 and Aaliyah Snead had 11. Celianiz Cabranes had a game-high 20 kills while Lana Rnjak had 39 assists for UTRGV.
NSU jumped out to the lead after they took the first set thanks to Nzioki's kill to give the Demons a 25-20 win in the opening set. NSU then snatched the second set with the match tied at 24-24 on back-to-back attack errors by Bryant and Franco.
The Vaqueros bounced back in the third set as Bryant and Franco's back-to-back kills kept UTRGV alive with a 25-21 win.
But the Demons were too much in crunch time. With the Vaqueros leading the fourth set 24-23, the Demons took advantage of UTRGV attack error then Sanchez's kill followed by Longlad's kill sealed the win.
"We played a great match today," said Kaszeta. "So collective on both sides of the net. The UTRGV community does an incredible job with their game management and the overall atmosphere. Our kids not only handled pressure tonight but were able to keep the pressure on them today too. First time all year we had positive contribution from all attackers today! A very good team win today.
With the win, the Demons split the season series with UTRGV snapping a six-game losing streak to the Vaqueros. NSU will take on the East Texas A&M Lions (11-16, 5-9 SLC) Thursday night at Prather Coliseum.
The Lions defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (9-16, 7-7) Saturday afternoon on the road 3-1 and are in ninth place while the Demons are tied with Lamar (9-18, 6-8 SLC) for seventh place.
