Northwestern State swept Texas A&M-Corpus Christi teams this weekend.
The NSU volleyball team roared back from a rough start Saturday to win at home, and the Demons soccer team traveled to the Gulf coast and blanked the Islanders Sunday afternoon as both squads climbed above .500 and continued recent strong play.
SOCCER: The Demons (7-6, 4-1) scored twice in the second half to lift NSU to a 2-0 road victory at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (4-7-3, 1-4-1) on Sunday afternoon at Dr. Jack Dugan Soccer & Track Stadium.
“I thought it was a good game,” head coach Ian Brophy said. “We played well. It was a really professional performance. I thought we managed the first half well under some difficult circumstances with the wind.
“In the second half when we had the wind at our back, we knew we could push and close out the game. We played well in the first half too, but we just didn’t capitalize on our chances.”
It is the first time NSU has been over .500 this season and the 4-1 start in Southland Conference play is the best start in the first five conference games since the NCAA Tournament team of 2021.
With the win, the defending conference champion Demons moved into a tie atop the SLC standings with UIW at the midway point of the conference schedule. Northwestern has won seven of its last eight games overall.
The Demons received goals courtesy of an own goal by AMCC and it was followed just a minute and a half later by a goal from Ravina Sandhu off a pass from Emily Gundin.
Gundin’s assist is her seventh this season, moving into a tie for sixth in program history for a single season, and 14 career assists are now eighth in school history.
Audrey Marfia recorded five of her career-high eight saves in the first half. The clean sheet is her second shutout of the season and the third of her career.
The Demons have a one-game week upcoming at home against Houston Christian on Thursday.
VOLLEYBALL: The Demons took their lumps in the opening set, and then took charge Saturday afternoon, beating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders in four sets (12-25, 25-21, 25-22 and 25-13) at Prather Coliseum.
The Demons (11-10, 3-3 SLC) were blasted in the opening set by the Islanders (6-11, 4-2 SLC) but turned it around.
The script completely flipped as Northwestern dominated the final set. Demon head coach Ben Kaszeta referenced adjusting to the Islanders’ speed as the key.
“They do different things that not a lot of other programs do,” said Kaszeta. “One of the things that makes them a successful program is they found this niche where they just go faster than everyone else. They literally go faster where their sets take less time than everyone else when you time it. It’s just a different pace that you have to get used to which we did much better after the first set.”
Elsie Sanchez’s 14 kills paced the Demons while Olivia Nzioki finished with 11 and Kenadii Winfrey had 10. Amber Craig had nine and just one error as she hit .400 for the match.
Jade Longlad had another solid game with 41 assists and nine digs while Emmarie McFarland had 10 digs for her 20th double-digit kill match it 21 matches for the Demons, who are on the road twice this week in SLC matches.