Final Stats THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team fell in straight sets to the Northwestern State Lady Demons 25-16, 25-14, 25-20 Saturday afternoon in Natchitoches.

With the loss the Colonels fall to 8-12 on the year and 3-6 in the Southland Conference.

Nicholls struggled offensively, finishing the match hitting .100 as a team with 27 kills while the Lady Demons had two players finish with double-digit kills and hit .275 for the day.

Jennifer Brandt, Kathryn Stock and Sarah Terry each finished the day with six kills, as Nancy Taylor added 24 assists and Jeanne Logarbo had 12 digs.

Northwestern State's Stacey DiFrancesco led all players with 15 kills, hitting .268 for the match with ten digs while Lady Demon setter Emily Sweet had 35 assists.

After Northwestern State raced out to a 6-1 lead, the Colonels scored six of the next nine points to pull within two of the Lady Demons at 9-7. Northwestern State got to 12-9 before Nicholls called its first timeout. The Colonels called their second timeout after NSU went up 17-13, as the Colonels only scored three more points in the set as the Lady Demons scored six straight points to close out the set.

Nicholls was able to keep it close in the second forcing four ties, but after forcing an 8-all tie the Lady Demons scored four of the next five to go up 12-9 to get Nicholls to call a timeout. Nicholls got the next two points out of the timeout, but Northwestern State scored five straight to go up 17-11 to force another Nicholls timeout. NSU went on to outscore Nicholls 8-3 to take the second 25-14.

The Colonels took their first lead of the set in the third, getting to four points before NSU scored six consecutive to go up 7-4. The Lady Demons would lead by as many as six and looked to be cruising to the win, but not before Nicholls rallied after falling behind 16-10, scoring ten of the next 16 points to pull within two at 22-20 getting NSU to call its first timeout of the match. Unfortunately, the Lady Demons scored the final three points after the timeout to close the match 25-20.

The Colonels will return to action on Tuesday, taking on the Lamar Lady Cardinals in Beaumont.