Visiting Lamar edged Northwestern State in a tightly-contested Southland Conference volleyball match in Prather Coliseum Wednesday night. The Demon soccer team headed for Hammond to play Southeastern Louisiana tonight in an SLC contest.
VOLLEYBALL: Despite a season-high 16 blocks and 89 digs, Northwestern was defeated 3-1 (25-27, 25-22, 25-22 and 25-22) in a highly competitive SLC match by Lamar.
The Demons (12-12, 4-5 SLC) were led by Emmarie McFarland with a career-high 33 digs while sophomore Julia Whitfield and Olivia Nzioki both had eight assisted blocks. Elsie Sanchez led the offense with 16 kills while Nzioki and Elizabeth Muguruza both had 13. Jade Longlad had 45 assists to pace the offense against the Cardinals (7-15, 4-5 SLC).
“Credit to Lamar for attacking us in some tough ways,” said Demon head coach Ben Kaszeta. “They put triple blocks against Elsie after her hot start, and it got in here way. So, they made some nice adjustments. But I still really like the way we are competing and while I wish were on the other side of the equation tonight, things are still getting better every game.”
Despite the loss, McFarland passed 700 career digs (731) while Muguruza’s 13 kills was a career high as well.
The Demons will travel to Nacogdoches, Texas to face the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks (13-9, 7-2 SLC) Saturday at noon.
SOCCER: NSU (7-7, 4-2) aims to bounce back after a rare home loss as it travels to Southeastern (7-6-2. 3-3-1) as the race for the Southland Conference regular season title heats up.
Kickoff is at 7 o’clock tonight at Strawberry Stadium in Hammond. The game can be watched on ESPN+.
The Demons are one of four SLC teams tied for second with 12 points — with UIW, Nicholls and Houston Christian — as they are all one point behind league-leading Lamar.
McNeese (11 points) and Southeastern (10) follow closely behind.
This is the second of five straight games to finish the regular season where the Demons do not leave the state of Louisiana.
“This whole season has been about how we bounce back when we’ve had those bumps and bruises and little downturns and hopefully we can bounce back again Thursday,” head coach Ian Brophy said. “Hopefully we are able to get something rolling and finish out the season strong and put us in contention to compete for a conference championship. The approach for the remainder of the season is to approach each game like it’s the final. But we need to clean up some of those details and little defensive things.”