Final Stats LAKE CHARLES, La. – The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team got a tough test against a reeling McNeese State team in Lake Charles on Thursday, but the Colonels got a combined 44 kills from Jennifer Brandt, Sarah Terry and Jessica Addicks to win in four sets 25-20, 25-23, 22-25, 25-22.

With the win the Colonels improve to 10-14 on the year and 5-8 in Southland Conference play, earning the team's fourth consecutive win over McNeese State.

“I thought the team played well tonight, and we got solid play out of everyone and that's' something we need to continue going into the final stretch of the season,” Nicholls head coach Patrick Hiltz said. “We got a lot of great play out of our middles and hopefully we can continue to get that for the rest of the season.”

Jennifer Brandt led all players with a season-high 18 kills in the win hitting .283, followed by Sarah Terry's 15 kills and .481 percentage and Jessica Addicks' 11 kills and .409 percentage. Brandt also led the team with 11 digs on the night for her eighth double-double of the season. Nancy Taylor served up a career-high 52 assists in the win, while Kathryn Stock had four of the Colonels' 10 aces on the night.

The Colonels jumped out to a big 8-2 lead in the first set and went up 12-5 quickly after. The Colonels had 17 kills in the first set and looked to be cruising to an easy open set win before the Cowgirls began to claw back pulling to within three of the Colonels three times including a 19-16 score. Nicholls scored three straight to get to 22-16 before going on to win 25-20.

The second set was much closer throughout as there were 15 ties and 9 lead changes, as the two teams battled until the very end of the frame. There were three ties after both teams broke the 20-point barrier, where after a 21-21 tie both teams earned the lead once before the Colonels closed the door by scoring the final three points of the set down 23-22 to go into the break up 2-0.

Nicholls' offense sputtered in the third set, as the team started out well and maintained a slim lead early, but after McNeese State broke a 13-all tie, the Cowgirls never looked back as they were able to hold off the Colonels for the rest of the set and win the third 25-22.

It looked like the match would go to five after McNeese State broke another early tie after the two were knotted at 9-9, as the Cowgirls were the first team to get to 20 points. But after getting to 21-18, the McNeese State offense broke down as the Colonels rattled off four consecutive points to take a 22-21 lead. After the Cowgirls tied the set at 22, Nicholls closed out the match with another three-point swing to win 25-22.

The Colonels will be back in action this weekend for their final two home matches of the year this Thursday and Saturday against Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin.