NATCHITOCHES -- Northwestern State appeared to continue its momentum from a two-match winning streak early in Sunday's match against Houston Baptist, but the Huskies poured in three second-half goals in a 3-1 Lady Demons' loss.

Houston Baptist's tandem of Jessa LeBlanc and Sabriah Spencer connected for two goals before Gabby Rodriguez tacked on a late insurance goal.

Down 1-0, LeBlanc took a Spencer pass from inside the box and poked it past NSU keeper Alex Latham in the 61st minute.

With the second half winding down, Spencer scored the go-ahead goal when LeBlanc found her open on the far post in the 83rd minute.

Rodriguez iced the game for the Huskies (8-4-1, 6-2 Southland Conference) when she scored a breakaway goal with NSU (5-8-3, 2-4-2 SLC) playing forward searching for its own equalizer.

NSU coach George Van Linder said the Lady Demons didn't connect as many passes as usual -- especially in the second half.

"Northwestern State has taken so much pride on being a strong passing team ... and we couldn't connect, which put it right back on their player's foot," Van Linder said. "They countered, and we got caught on our heels too many times.

"We got a little bit away from our game plan in the second half, and the momentum built in HBU's favor. We couldn't settle in and play our style."

The loss ends NSU's first winning streak of the season.

NSU had all the momentum early, dominating possession for the first 10 minutes in which senior Cassandra Briscoe scored a goal in the 6th minute.

Briscoe took a rebound from an Esdeina Gonzalez deflected shot, and the midfielder snapped a shot from 10 yards for a 1-0 lead. The Ontario, Canada native scored her team-high fifth goal of the season, tallying three of those goals in front of her parents in the last two matches.

Briscoe also had a shot ricochet off the near post in NSU's early domination that included five shots in the first 10 minutes.

"We came out well, and I was happy with how the team responded at the beginning of the game," Van Linder said.

Briscoe and freshman forward Brittany Caserma each took a team-high three shots. The Lady Demons attempted 11 shots (five on goal) to Houston Baptist's 17 shots (nine on goal).

With the loss, NSU falls to ninth place in the conference standings and is two points out of the Southland Conference tournament picture. Eighth-place McNeese has nine points and Central Arkansas and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi have 10 points each.

The top six postseason-eligible teams qualify, and because second-place Abilene Christian remains in a conference transition, the seventh-place team will receive the tournament bid.

NSU, which has three matches remaining, makes its final road trip of the regular season by traveling to Nicholls on Friday at 4 p.m. and Southeastern on Sunday at 1 p.m.