NATCHITOCHES -- After making a five-match road trip, the Northwestern State soccer team returns to the Lady Demon Soccer Complex to host Alcorn State on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The Lady Demons (2-3-1), who will playing at home for the first time in 17 days, went 1-3-1 on its road trip which included a 1-1 tie against LSU.

Coach George Van Linder said coming back to play in front of friendly faces, especially after NSU set a program record with 1,204 on Aug. 21, will be a welcome relief.
"Every team likes to play at home, and we hope we have another great crowd," Van Linder said. "It means so much to us, and these players enjoy coming home and deserve to play in front of great crowds."

NSU suffered tough losses this past weekend -- a 1-0 defeat at UL Lafayette and a 2-1 overtime loss at ULM.

The Lady Demons created more offensive chances in the last three matches then their opponents, and Van Linder said finishing those opportunities will be key.

"There's an old adage that says let the ball do the work, and sometimes we need to do a better job of that," Van Linder said. "We match up athletically with (Alcorn State) -- that's one of our strengths.

"We're hoping to get those same opportunities, and we just need to capitalize on the chances we do get."

NSU has played one other member from the Southwestern Athletic Conference, a 4-0 win at Jackson State.

Van Linder said NSU's youth -- 24 of 31 players are freshmen or sophomores -- has surfaced early in the season, but the coach sees a lot of promise in the way the Lady Demons have played.

"We try to speed up that process of maturing youth, but sometimes you can't do that," Van Linder said. "When we're focused for 90 minutes, we can get a result like a tie with LSU.

"We had lapses against Texas A&M and a few minutes of lapses against ULM and ULL. We've suffered the pain of not concentrating for 90 minutes."

Freshman forward Kayliegh Phillips is tied for the conference lead with four goals, and fellow freshman Brittany Caserma is tied for third with three goals. The pair accounted for seven of NSU's 10 goals, which ranks third in the league on a second-best 79 shots.

Senior midfielder Cassandra Briscoe is second in the SLC with three assists.

Between the posts, senior goalkeeper Brooke Bourbonais and sophomore Alex Latham continue their timeshare of one half each.

Bourbonais has allowed three goals in 270 minutes while Latham has given up five goals in 300 minutes.