SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of Incarnate Word volleyball team picked up their first Southland Conference victory of the season on Saturday against Northwestern State at the McDermott Center.  The match went right down to the wire as the Cardinals edged out the Demons in five sets winning 25-22, 25-17, 23-25, 18-25, 15-13.
           
The Cardinals started out strong in the first set recording 12 kills while overcoming a .027 attack percentage mainly because the Demons were struggling with serving errors. Much like the match on Thursday, the team relied on Angelique Vidaurri (San Antonio/Southwest HS) in the first part of the match and she started out the first set with four kills to set the early tone.  The Cardinals used a late run to win the first set 25-22 and they took the early advantage going into the rest of the match.
           
The second set was much like the first, the Cardinals only had a .143 attack percentage, but the Demons committed seven attack errors and had a .030 attack percentage. Autumn Lockley (Leander/Leander HS) took over in the second set and she followed up her performance in the last match with another great performance on Saturday.  She led the Cardinals to the second set victory with four kills as UIW cruised to the 25-17 victory to go up 2-0 on the match. 
           
However, after going up 2-0, the Cardinals were unable to close out the match losing in both the third and fourth sets.  Northwestern State mustered double digit kills in both of the sets and the blocking wall of Glynna Johnson and Amanda Kunz gave the Cardinals troubles in the last three sets of the match.
           
In the pivotal fifth set, the Cardinals jumped out to an early lead and forced the Demons to call a timeout.  Coming out of the timeout, Brianna Blagowsky (Plano/Plano East HS) had back-to-back service aces which gave UIW a 14-11 advantage and propelled the Cardinals to the match victory.  After two straight points by the Demons to trim the UIW lead to 14-13, Bryaunea Hall (Copperas Cove/Copperas Cove HS) delivered the match winning kill to give the Cardinals their first conference victory of the season.
           
The Cardinals had 53 kills, nine service aces, 67 digs and 10 blocks while posting a .135 attack.Lockley was the star for the Cardinals for the second straight match. She led all players with 18 kills on the day and she also contributed 15 digs giving her a double-double.  Vidaurri and Hall also had double digit kills with 10 apiece.  Taylor McClelland (Cypress/Cypress Ranch HS) led the Cardinals with 28 assists and Claudia Hernandez (San Antonio/Antonian HS) had a team high 19 digs.
           
The Lady Demons finished with 43 kills, eight service aces, 60 digs and 12.0 blocks while posting a .127 attack.  Lauren Agan led the team with 14 kills and nine digs.  Johnson had nine kills, six blocks and a .500 attack.  Natalie Jager led the team with 15 assists while Bailey Martin led the way with 16 digs.
           
The Cardinals return to action against Abilene Christian on October 6 in Abilene as the team continues conference play.
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