NATCHITOCHES – In the final weekend of the 2013 regular season, the Northwestern State women's soccer team will look to make it to the Southland Conference Tournament for the first time since 2008 when they travel to Incarnate Word on Friday at 7 o'clock and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Sunday.
 
The Lady Demons (6-10-1, 4-5-1 Southland Conference) are one point behind Lamar, who currently holds the final spot into the tournament.   NSU is in eighth place going into the weekend, but since Abilene Christian is not eligible for the conference tourney this season the Lady Demons are actually only one spot out.
 
Of the six seeds allowed in the tournament, three are still open and Nicholls, Sam Houston, Lamar, NSU, Central Arkansas, and Houston Baptist are still in play for those three spots. 
 
Nicholls and SHSU lead the pack with 15 points while UCA and HBU follow behind with 12 points.  Every win counts for three points a tie counts as one.
 
Of the six teams still in contention, five of them still have to play another team in contention.  NSU is the only team that does not; Incarnate Word is 11th and TAMUCC is 13th in the standings.
 
Nicholls still has to play Sam Houston (Sunday), Lamar has to face Central Arkansas (Friday), and Sam Houston will also play Houston Baptist (Friday).
 
The Lady Demons hold wins over Nicholls, Sam Houston, and Houston Baptist.  They played to a 0-0 draw versus Lamar.
 
Katie Miller leads Incarnate Word (9-6-2, 3-5-2 SLC) with 21 points on nine goals and three assists.  Sydney Solomon follows her with 16 (five goals, six assists) and Abigail Koenigs with 14 (seven goals).
 
The Cardinals' goalkeeper Heather Kowalik has an 8-5-2 record with 49 saves on the season.
 
Senior Ashlee Savona leads the Lady Demons with eight points on the year.  She has four goals.   Brooke Eastburg follows with six points (three goals) and Taylor Mulnix has five (two goals, one assist).
 
Senior goalkeeper Jessica Danku broke her single-season mark for saves this season with 113.  Her personal record was 99 in 2011.
 
If the Lady Demons sweep the weekend, it would give them six conference wins for the first time since 2005 when the Lady Demons finished 6-1 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Southland Conference Tournament will be in Lake Charles and starts on Nov. 7.
 
The three-seed will face the six-seed at 4:30 (match one) and the five-seed takes on the four-seed at 7 o'clock in match two.
 
The winner of match one will face the two-seed at 4:30 on Nov. 8 and the winner of match two will face the one-seed at seven o'clock.  The winner of those two matches will meet in the championship game on Nov. 10 at 1:05.