Northwestern State’s volleyball team reached double-digits in the win column Saturday, but the Demon soccer team slipped out of the Southland Conference lead when it was blanked in San Antonio Friday night. The Lady Demon tennis team continued its fall schedule with success in a weekend tournament.
VOLLEYBALL: NSU bounced back from Thursday’s 3-2 loss to Southeastern with a hard-fought 3-0 sweep (25-23, 25-22 and 25-23) of the LSU-New Orleans Privateers Saturday afternoon at Prather Coliseum.
The Demons (10-9, 2-2 SLC) got out to the lead in the first set, 15-10, highlighted by senior Jade Longlad’s 1,000 career assists. She became just the 15th player in program history to record at least 1,000 assists. The Calgary, Alberta, Canada native had 12 assists in the first set as NSU held off a late run by the Privateers (2-15, 0-4 SLC) thanks to a kill by Kenadii Winfrey.
In the second frame, the Demons pushed ahead 23-21 after a kill by Olivia Nzioki and an attack error by the Privateers. After the Privateers scored to close the gap, Olivia Nzioki blasted another kill to give NSU set point. Elsie Sanchez closed the set with a kill for her 10th of the match.
The Demons and Privateers had another good battle in set 3. Tied at 23, Amber Craig and Gillian Grace Wolf’s kills ended a straight set win.
“This team competes,” said second-year NSU coach Ben Kaszeta. “We are going to play as hard as we can and compete. Sometimes we may do some things that hurt as a young team, but we are going to fight the entire match and we showed it today. New Orleans was a really tough opponent whose record shows nothing. That’s a good team that’s going to cause a lot of problems for teams in this league.”
Sanchez finished with a team and game-high 16 kills while Wolf had 10. Nzioki had eight while Craig added seven as NSU finished with 48 kills.
Next up, the Demons host to reigning co-Southland Conference champions the UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros (8-7, 4-0 SLC) Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Prather Coliseum. UTRGV defeated Houston Christian (0-4, 2-14) earlier Saturday in three sets at home.
SOCCER: NSU controlled much of the possession but could not find the back of the net in a 2-0 loss on the road Friday evening to UIW at Gayle & Tom Benson Stadium. Northwestern (5-6, 2-1) saw its five-game winning streak come to an end, while UIW (6-5-2, 3-1) moved into sole possession of first place in the Southland Conference.
“I didn’t think we were good,” Demons’ head coach Ian Brophy said. “We didn’t show up ready for the match and struggled through large portions of the match and to really play our football. We just weren’t good enough tonight.”
UIW found the scoreboard first on a corner kick in the 24th minute, and the Cardinals added a goal in the 52nd.
NSU led the shot attempts overall 15-8 and 9-4 in shots on goal.
“It felt like when we created really good situations, the ball was just a little over, a little wide, not quite making the goalkeeper make a save,” Brophy said. “The stats are a little bit deceiving because I felt like we put a lot of non-dangerous chances where she was able to make saves, but we’ve got to do a better job of when we’re in a good situation, making sure we test her and put it on frame.”
The Demons host East Texas A&M on Thursday night, the first home game in two weeks.
TENNIS: The Lady Demons got plenty of singles and doubles competition during the River State Shoot-Out in San Marcos. Coach Marcos Morelli was pleased with the development he saw from his young squad.
“Overall, there was progress from the last tournament (at Rice),” Morelli said. “It’s time to get back and continue working.”
Northwestern will take next weekend off before returning to play at the Bearkat Invitational hosted by Sam Houston on Oct. 16-17.