NATCHITOCHES, La. – The Sam Houston State Bearkats closed out the regular season on a winning note, taking down Northwestern State, 3-1 (23-25, 25-16, 25-19, 25-9) on Saturday afternoon at Prather Coliseum.

The win, coupled with a loss by Houston Baptist to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi earlier in the day, gives the Bearkats (16-13, 10-6 SLC) the No. 3 seed in next week's Southland Conference Tournament.

The Kats will be one of the hottest teams in the Southland entering the event, having closed out the regular season with wins in four of their last five matches.

Set 1
The Bearkats hit .300 from the floor and had three blocks in the opening set, but the Demons (12-19, 7-9 SLC) came out hot offensively, picking up 19 kills in the set, led by five from Kourtney Seaton. Taylor Cunningham was successful on four of seven tries with a pair of blocks, but Northwestern State scored the first four points of the match and never trailed in the set.

Set 2
Things went better from the get-go in the second frame with a 5-1 early run setting the tone for a 25-16 win to tie things up. After the Demons went for 19 kills and hit .282 in the first set, the Kats' defense held them to just eight kills and .11 from the floor in the second. Meanwhile, Michelle Griffith dished out 16 assists and directed Sam Houston to .325 hitting while five players had multiple kills in the set. Vaughn led the way with six more scores, while Cunningham added four.

Set 3
Three scores each for White and Vaughn paced Sam Houston in the third set. The Kats opened it up early with a four-point run to go up 7-2 and saw the lead up to as much as six at 12-6 on a block from Sarah Sherman and Amanda Gooch, one of two blocks for the Kats in the set. The Demons, who hit just .188 in Set 3, cut it to as close as one point at 18-17. But Sam Houston responded with four of the next five points to re-extend the lead before scoring the final three to close it out on its way to hitting .273 for the set.

Set 4
The Bearkats wasted no time in disposing of the Demons in the final set, hitting .452 and holding Northwestern State to -.065 with only four kills in a 25-9 win to close out the match. Six Bearkats had at least two kills in the set with Cunningham and Sherman picking up four apiece. The Bearkats picked up three of their 10 blocks in the match in the fourth, leading 7-3 early on and scoring five of the final six points of the match.

Key Stat
Northwestern State hit .282 in the opening set, but saw that number dip below .200 in each of the final three frames. The Bearkat defense held the Demons to just .076 hitting over the final three sets, including -.065 in the final set.

Players Of The Match
Three Bearkats finished with at least 10 kills for the match, led by Jordyn Vaughn and Taylor Cunningham with 14 apiece. Cunningham added six blocks and hit .367 for the match, while Vaughn swung at a .250 clip. Brooke White added 10 kills and Sarah Sherman had nine on 12 swings without an attack error while also adding three blocks.

Setter Michelle Griffith dished out 45 assists in directing Sam Houston to .336 for the match, the third-highest single-match attack percentage for the Kats this season. Breanna Homer also added 20 digs, while Claire Kilpatrick had a dozen.

Up Next
The Bearkats will be the No. 3 seed in next week's Southland Conference Tournament, which will be held at the Farris Center in Conway, Ark.

Sam Houston will get another look at the Demons in the opening round as Northwestern State will enter the match as the No. 6 seed in the tournament. First serve is set for 1:30 p.m.