By: Matt Vines, Assistant Director of Communications
Box Score HOUSTON – After a disappointing loss Friday at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the Northwestern State soccer team rebounded Sunday to accomplish one of its preseason goals.
The Lady Demons fought off Houston Baptist for a 2-1 win, mathematically clinching their first Southland Conference Tournament bid since 2008.
NSU (9-6, 6-2 SLC), who won five straight SLC games before Friday's loss, has its most conference wins since 2005 (6-1) and its most overall wins since 2009 (11-9).
"We talked about resilience in a team meeting Saturday night, and we said that's what good teams do," said fifth-year NSU coach George Van Linder. "The team responded and everyone stepped up."
NSU (9-6, 6-2 SLC) snatched a two-goal lead with goals from senior Camila Ardila and junior Esdeina Gonzalez.
Houston Baptist's Ellee Hall halved NSU's lead to 2-1 in the 78th minute, but junior goalkeeper Alex Latham and the Lady Demons defense withstood a late barrage of shots (HBU had 25 total) to secure the win.
Latham tied her SLC career high with 10 saves in a conference match, recording double-digit stops in a league match for the first time since she did it twice in 2014.
Ardila started the scoring in the opening minute of the second half, scoring her fourth goal this season on an April Trowbridge cross. The goal was Ardila's first in SLC play and Trowbridge's third assist this season – all in league matches.
Gonzalez padded NSU's lead to 2-0 in the 68th minute, taking a long through ball from junior Cache' Haley and finding the bottom left corner of the net.
Gonzalez has scored three goals in the last five matches to increase her season total to four. Haley has two assists this season.
"Everyone played so hard today," Van Linder said. "Sundays are tough, and our players took that as a challenge and put forth great effort."
NSU remains in a tie for third place after Stephen F. Austin (6-2 SLC) beat Southeastern 4-0. Central Arkansas (7-0-1 SLC) keeps the lead with a win against TAMU-CC, while Abilene Christian (6-1-1 SLC) kept pace with a 2-1 win against McNeese (3-5 SLC), which aided NSU in securing the SLC Tournament bid.
The Lady Demons finish their home schedule this weekend by hosting Nicholls (2-4-1 SLC) on Friday and Southeastern (3-4-1 SLC) on Sunday.
