Las Cruces, N.M. – Although the Lady Colonels lost their first two matches in the New Mexico State Hilton Classic Friday afternoon, the team’s play indicated good things to come. The two matches combined, debuted six new faces to the program.

The Colonels fell in the first match of the season against the University of Alabama, but they did show potential.

Nicholls lost the first game of the match by a score of 30-20. The Lady Colonel defense allowed 40 kills by New Mexico State.

Junior Katie Leymaster finished the game with 8 assists and the only ace for the Colonels.

While senior outside hitter, Shanda Johnson finished the the match with six kills and eight digs.

The win gave Alabama its first win of the season.

Approximately five fours after the start of the first match, the Lady Colonels took the court again for the second time.

Nicholls had 12 more kills than they did in the previous match, although they lost the game in three matches.

Johnson finished the game with 13 kills and seven digs.

Jana James also made her mark on the game with seven kills. Heather Cessna had the only block of the day.

The Colonels were able to put a few more aspects of the game together on the second day of the tournament, although they would come out of it winless.

Nicholls lost its third match of the tournament in a four-game series against the University of Pennsylvania, which proved to be the closest game that the Lady Colonels would play throughout the whole tournament.

“We started to do a blocking scheme that worked,” said M.J. Engstrom, Lady Colonels head coach.

Nicholls held the Lady Panthers to seven aces in the four game match. Leymaster possesed all but four of the teams 35 assists.