Elsie Sanchez had a career-high 28 kills as the Northwestern State volleyball team outlasted Houston Christian in a five-set Southland Conference thriller (23-25, 27-25, 25-22, 18-25 and 15-11) Thursday night at Prather Coliseum.
With the 3-2 win, their first in three five-setters this season, the Demons (13-13, 5-6 SLC) swept the season series over the Huskies (5-18, 3-8 SLC) for the first time in program history.
NSU will be back at home to face the UIW Cardinals (11-9, 9-2 SLC) Saturday afternoon at 1. The Cardinals beat East Texas A&M (9-15, 3-8 SLC) 3-1 on the road Thursday night.
Sanchez, a sophomore, became the first Demon since Nov. 23, 2019, to record 25 or more digs when Hannah Brister had 25. The Tarragona, Spain native phenomenal as she .333 for the match (28-7-63).
“Honestly, I didn’t feel that energized at first,” said Sanchez. “But somewhere in the match I had an energy boost, and it all started to work for me. I can’t really explain but I’m glad to be able to help us win tonight.”
NSU was also led by senior Jade Longlad who had a career-high 55 assists.
Sanchez and Longlad were not alone as Amber Craig added 13 kills while Elizabeth Muguruza recorded her first career double-double with 15 digs and 12 kills. Emmarie McFarland continued her stellar defensive season for the Demons with 31 digs as she remains second in the Southland in digs per set (4.83 dps).
With the match tied at 9-9 in the fifth set, NSU got back-to-back kills by Olivia Nzioki and Sanchez to take an 11-9 lead. Later in the set with the Demons leading 13-11, Kenadii Winfrey’s kill gave NSU match point. Fittingly, it was Sanchez and Longlad who clinched the match. Longlad’s 55th assist set up Sanchez for her 28th kill as the Demons picked up the thrilling win.
“That was a weird match,” said Demon head coach Ben Kaszeta. “There were just a lot of weird things that don’t generally happen. But I’m proud of us for keeping our composure throughout a very intense match. Basically, what we took from this is one is that ‘we can.’ We can win matches, we can take different shots, we can do a lot of different things. After last year when people would look at our record and say “oh its Northwestern State who cares” but now teams know that we are going to compete every single game.
CROSS COUNTRY: A young group on both sides for Northwestern races in Lake Charles for the third time this season, as they compete at the Southland Conference Championships this morning at the Enos Derbonne Sports Complex. The women’s 6K race begins at 8:30 a.m., while the men’s 8K race starts at 9:30 a.m.
“We’re really excited,” head coach Alex Wills said. “The girls put on a good performance (in their last meet two weeks ago) against other teams in our conference in Mississippi, while the guys are competing really well and getting healthy. I think they are going to come out and compete, and we have a good strategy in place. Hopefully we can go out and surprise some people.”
SOCCER: The Demons (8-8 overall, 5-3 in the SLC) are also in Lake Charles this weekend, as they play at McNeese (8-6-3, 3-2-3) Sunday afternoon at 1, needing a win to stay in contention to defend their Southland title from last season.