Olivia Nzioki and Jade Longlad helped lead the Northwestern State volleyball team to a hard-fought 3-1 win over Jackson State Tuesday night in the Demons’ home opener, prevailing 25-22, 25-17, 19-25 and 25-23 at Prather Coliseum
The Demons (2-6) came out strong in the first set as they hit .444 going to the first media timeout leading 15-11. They held strong thanks to Elsie Oliver who had five kills in the first set including the set clincher. NSU finished the first set with 18 kills, 4 errors and 37 attacks to hit .378.
In the second set, the Demons got off to a good start again, up 7-4 after Kenadii Winfrey’s kill. The Tigers rallied back to cut the deficit to 8-7. NSU roared on an 11-4 run to take a 19-11 lead as Elizabeth Murgurza’s ace gave NSU its biggest spread. The Tigers (3-3) battled back to cut the Demons’ lead to 21-17. Sanchez recorded three straight kills before Jade Longlad’s ace won the set for NSU.
The Tigers stormed out in the third set to an 11-3 lead. NSU rallied to 20-16 late in the set on Amber Craig’s kill. But JSU took a 23-17 lead and closed out the set on an ace.
The Tigers scored three straight points to take an 8-7 lead in the fourth set. NSU quickly responded with four straight points after kills by Murgurza, two by Craig and an ace by Longlad to give the Demons the lead, which grew to 17-11. The Tigers scored five straight points to cut it 17-16.
Two kills by Sanchez and two by Winfrey put the Demons in front 23-19. The Tigers scored back-to-back points, making it 23-21 before Demons’ head coach Ben Kaszeta called a timeout. Winfrey again came up a huge kill to make it 24-22. With the Demons leading 24-23, a service error by the Tigers ended the match.
“So, the word I would say is ‘growth’,” said Kaszeta. “We did things better tonight in crunch time situations than we did in the last couple of matches. We right were there with Missouri State and then couldn’t finish against Indiana State this past weekend when we were up 2-1. So, it was a good response for us tonight in set four to bounce back from set 3 the way we did. I don’t know if we relaxed or if they played harder in the third set. But we had good growth to win set 4.”
Nzioki led the Demons with 14 kills while Craig and Sanchez both had 12. Winfrey finished with 10 to aid NSU which finished with 60 kills and .208 for the match (60 kills, 27 errors, 159 attacks). Longlad had 45 assists while Emmarie McFarland had 20 digs for her eighth straight game. Murgurza had 13 digs and seven kills.
The Demons will play in the Bulldog Bash Thursday, Friday and Saturday hosted by Louisiana Tech. NSU will take on Mississippi Valley State (1-4) Thursday at 4, then meets ULM (2-5) Friday at 4 and Grambling State (2-3) Saturday at 1.