THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls women's volleyball team will begin a four-match home stand this week as the team will take on the McNeese State Cowgirls Thursday night. The four consecutive home contests will close out the conference home slate for the team this year.

The Colonels are 16-10 on the year and 3-7 in the Southland Conference, while the Cowgirls are 7-17 and 2-8 in conference. The Colonels are ahead of the Cowgirls in the eastern division standings, and still have a chance to qualify for the conference tournament with three weeks left in the season sitting one game out of a current three-way tie for the final two spots left.

Nicholls is coming off of a split last week, defeating Southeastern in a thrilling five-set match in Thibodaux, before falling in straight-sets to Stephen F. Austin in Texas over the weekend. Sarah Terry and Jessica Addicks finished the week with 27 kills for the Colonels over the course of the two matches, while Jennifer Brandt scored 27 digs for Nicholls.

The Cowgirls' lone two conference wins have come against Southeastern on Sep. 24 and more recently last Thursday against Lamar, who is third in the eastern division currently. Besides getting swept by juggernaut UTSA, McNeese has taken every opponent to no less than four sets in every match.

The last time these two squads met was in the Southland opener for each team, as the Colonels needed five sets to down the Cowgirls in Lake Charles. Nicholls extended the second-longest winning streak in team history to 13 straight with that win, but it wasn't easy as the Colonels dropped the first set to McNeese, before taking the second, third and deciding fifth set.

After getting lambasted in the first set after giving up 18 kills to McNeese, Nicholls found its rhythm, while the Cowgirls were losing theirs, as the Colonels averaged a .300 hitting percentage for the rest of the match.

While the team was able to spread the wealth in that match, all of McNeese's offense came from Nicole Bowden and Taylor Bustamento, who combined for 38 of 68 McNeese kills on the night. The Colonels will have to try and contain those two again, along with Whitney Ellisor and Katie Kennedy as each are in the top ten in the conference in digs.

The match will begin at 7 p.m. with live streaming of the event at thibodauxonline.com as well as live stats available at www.sidearmstats.com/nichols/wvball and on www.geauxcolonels.com/mobile.