LAKE CHARLES—McNeese volleyball had one job to do Saturday in order to keep their season alive and the Cowgirls completed the task with a straight set (26-24, 25-23, 25-18) regular season finale win over Northwestern State (12-14, 8-8 SLC) on senior day, clinching a spot in next week's Southland Conference Tournament.
 
McNeese (10-21, 8-8 SLC) ends the season in a four-way tied for fifth place with Houston Baptist, Northwestern State, and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The tournament seeds and pairings will be released following the conclusion of Saturday's matches.
 
"Man, what a performance from our team," said head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald. "Today was a show up or shut up match, and we showed up. Everyone contributed, and we played pretty clean ball throughout all three sets. We are excited and need to rest up then go attack the conference tournament."
 
The Cowgirls showed up in a big way, especially on defense where the Cowgirls picked up 63 digs and was credited with 22 block assists including a block assists by senior Ebony Lewis and Allison Lippert for the final point of the third set.
 
Lippert ended the match with six block assists, Paige Havel had five and Lewis had four. Angela McGownd looked like a digging machine and was all over the floor, ending the match with 31 digs. Keegan Nelms picked up a match high 13 kills and Amari Franklin was credited with 20 assists.
 
The opening set was back and forth the entire set and NW State had set point following a Reagan Rogers kill but Nelms brought McNeese to within one point with a kill and a Lady Demon error tied it up at 24. Havel's kill put McNeese up 25-24 and another Lady Demon error gave McNeese the first set victory.
 
McNeese jumped out to a 4-1 lead in set 2 and held a 7-4 lead on a Kendall Glueck kill. NW State would get as close as 14-13 before the Cowgirls went on a 4-0 run to extend their lead to 18-13. NW State responded with a run of their own and got within one point 20-19 and again at 24-23 before back-to-back kills by Nelms sealed the second set win for a 2-0 lead.
 
Once again McNeese jumped out to the quick 7-3 lead in the final set then extended it to 13-6. NW State would get as close as 14-12 on a McNeese error before Havel and Glueck teamed for two blocks to put McNeese up 18-12. The Cowgirls would go on to outscore the Lady Demons 13-6 the rest of the way.