NATCHITOCHES, La. – The New Orleans Privateers defense posed several questions but the Northwestern State Demons won a critical third set in extra rallies and used a big run early in the fourth to win 3-1 (25-17, 21-25, 27-25, 25-9) on Thursday at Prather Coliseum.
With the match tied at 1-1, the third set had virtually nothing in between the two sides. No team led by more than three points in any part of the set. Northwestern State used a critical four-point spurt to go ahead 24-21.
New Orleans resiliently fought back though as they saved the first two set points. After a Demons timeout,
Akeir Scales saved a third set point to tie the score at 24-24 and force extra rallies. Northwestern State's Teresa Garza came up with kills on consecutive rallies though to give the home team the set 27-25 and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Northwestern State took the momentum of finishing off the third set and turned it into a 9-0 run to begin the fourth set. The Demons never looked back from there as they hit .583 in the set. The win put an end to the Demons' four-match losing streak.
The Demons got out to a quick start with their service game. They had six aces in their first 14 points earned to help set the tone for the home side. Northwestern State got to set point with an 11-point lead in the opening set.
The Privateers saved the first four chances the Demons had at closing out the set behind kills by
Buse Kocakaya,
Jaedyn Newman and
Akeir Scales. The fifth time was the charm though as Garza notched her fifth kill of the set to give the Demons a 1-0 lead.
New Orleans fell behind by four points early when it was 10-6, but they quickly got back on level terms after scoring on six of the next eight rallies. The Privateers surged ahead 21-18 behind a balanced offense. The Privateers took the set seven rallies later to level the match at 1-1. New Orleans held Northwestern State to a .128 attack percentage and no aces.
Garza had 22 kills, 12 digs and three aces. Reaghan Thompson finished with 15 kills and 13 digs for the Demons.
INSIDE THE BOX
Courtney Roundtree led the Privateer offense with 11 kills. Scales finished with nine kills and five total blocks.
Jaedyn Newman added seven kills and Kocakaya finished with six kills along with a team-leading 14 digs. In the assist column,
Defne Eciroglu finished with 20 while
Alexis Belarmino tallied 16.
NEXT UP
The Privateers' season concludes at East Texas A&M on Saturday. First serve is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.
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