Saturday afternoon the ULM Warhawks volleyball team fell to its in-state rivals the Lady Demons of Northwestern State University. ULM lost all four sets it played as part of an exhibition match.

Although the match was an exhibition, the game served to introduce the Warhawk faithful to their new head volleyball coach in Charlie Olson. And Olson was able to finally see his new team under real action against a formidable foe.

“Anytime you can bring in a quality opponent like Northwestern State it really shows what you do well and where you have to put some work in,” Olson said.

The Warhawks and their new coach have been together about two weeks at this point and it seems like Olson is still trying to figure out what lineups work best.

Throughout the night he experimented and changed his lineups frequently. When something didn’t seem to work well he was quick to make a change.

The Lady Demons cruised through the first two sets but struggled as the Warhawks used the power of the crowd to inspire their game.

“We appreciate them coming in and giving forth their best effort which allowed us to really make some changes with our line up to see what we need to improve on moving forward and setting for New Orleans,” Olson said.

Since the game was an exhibition match, the teams were allowed to play a fourth set even after the Lady Demons won the first three in a row.

The Warhawks gave the fans in the stands something to cheer about during the last set as they fought back and almost took the last set. It ended 21-25 in favor of the visitors.

“We’ll take it one match at a time but it gives a lot of quality film to go back and really talk to our centers, find out what we need to make improvements on,” Olson said.

Volleyball next travels to New Orleans for the New Orleans Invitational tournament to kick start their season. The tournament starts Friday and runs into Saturday.

The team returns home for their first official game of the season in front of a home crowd Sept. 22 against other in-state rivals McNeese State.