NATCHITOCHES -- Northwestern State soccer's six seniors will have one goal in mind Sunday when they step on the Lady Demon Soccer Complex for one last time -- one more trip to the Southland Conference Tournament.
 
The Lady Demons (9-8, 3-6 SLC) can all but wrap up a postseason spot with a win against Nicholls at 1 p.m., but these seniors will also be dealing other emotions as they play their final home game.
 
"It just feels so unreal, like it really does fly by," said senior defender Ysmina Smith, who has been a four-year starter with 60 starts and 70 appearances. "We'll walk out there for Senior Day, and they'll call our names for the last time, and there'll be a lot of emotions that are going to come through.
 
"We'll play these last games, and we'll fight for our season. We'll go out like every game is our last -- it's the seniors' last ride. We're hoping for the best to make it back to the tournament, and it would be a great experience to make it back in our last year."
 
The final time these seniors' names will be called will be during the Senior Day ceremony presented by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which will take place after the match against the Lady Colonels (3-13, 1-8 SLC).
 
Smith joins seniors Brittany Caserma, April Ficarrotta, Jacqueline Manza, Oliva Marazzo and April Trowbridge.
 
Caserma and Trowbridge are among NSU's most prolific scorers in school history, but their minds are focused on another postseason trip after the Lady Demons earned the No. 3 seed in 2016, when these seniors were sophomores.
 
Both scorers have 22 career goals (tied for seventh in school history), and Trowbridge's 13 goals this season are just three away from NSU's single-season record.
 
Trowbridge, whose 15 assists (tied for fifth) and 59 career points (fourth) are top five statistics, compiled her numbers in just three seasons after playing her freshman campaign in her native Canada.
 
She came to NSU as a sophomore under former coach George Van Linder, who coached her older sister Melissa at Stephen F. Austin.
 
"It's bittersweet because I wished I would have come here for my freshman season … but it was tough to leave everything behind in Canada," said Trowbridge, whose 13 goals leads the SLC. "We've had interesting seasons, making a great run as sophomores and then having a tough junior season.
 
"But we're moving in the right direction, and leaving this program in a better place."
 
Caserma and Trowbridge have molded themselves into a dynamic offensive duo under first-year co-head coaches Jess and Anna Jobe, being able to play off each other with Caserma in the middle and Trowbridge in different locations out wide.
 
"It's great to play up top with Trowbridge, and we've been connecting and making all these passes," said Caserma, an All-Louisiana and All-SLC performer who has made a name for herself as a physical, aggressive attacker. "I've gotten so used to playing out wide in the last three years just running down the line, I had to adjust to playing in the middle and holding players off and opening up and seeing passes backward or forward."
 
"It's been great to look at what this senior class has accomplished, and we've made great bonds and connections."
 
Jobe said Caserma and Trowbridge have been offensive staples of a team that's scored 37 goals in 17 games.
 
"Caserma adds a little something extra up top with the way she tracks down balls and uses her body to hold it up for us in the middle," Jobe said. "It's a little different than what she's done the past three years, but she's done a good job adjusting to things we're asking of her.
 
"Trowbridge has been a huge asset that opponents can't ignore. She can run at players and be dangerous, making impacts on the end line or running at players. April can influence games even when she's not on the scoresheet, and she deserves every bit of success she's had."
 
As sophomores, this class formed one of the backbones for a 10-win team that won five straight conference games to go to the SLC Tournament, the program's first trip since 2008.
 
Although the 2018 Lady Demons haven't tallied up wins like they hoped, one can't overlook the increased level of competitiveness with six one-goal losses.
 
Marazzo will bring her competitiveness from the sidelines to the field in her last home weekend after a foot injury derailed a senior season in which she earned a starting role for the first time in her career.
 
"It means the world to be cleared now even though this season obviously didn't go the way I wanted it to," Marazzo said. "I stepped into a different role and helped out in different ways.
 
"It's so exciting to see a young back line step in and fill roles they weren't used to, and now it looks like they've been on the spot for years. I'd like to be able to say that we started to build a program with the (Jobes) and were part of laying that foundation."
 
Fellow senior Jacqueline Manza hasn't been able to play at all this season, her third in which injuries have impacted her time on the field.
 
But Manza has been a voice from the sidelines, and she'll revel in showing her large New Jersey family around Natchitoches.
 
"I'll show them Front Street, which is already starting to put up Christmas lights," said Manza, who scored three goals as a freshman and had a game-winning assist in double overtime. "This campus is cute and unique … and we'll eat some gator bites.
 
"The experience of being somewhere completely different these last four years and the family and friends I've made, it's been tremendous. Natchitoches always feels like home, but it makes it feel even more like home when my family is here."
 
Senior midfielder April Ficarrotta has played the majority of her collegiate minutes this season after striving to see the field in her first three seasons.
 
Ficarrotta scored the first of NSU's three goals this past weekend at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and she hopes the younger players can learn from her time here.
 
"It feels like I'm ending on a good note and leaving something for the younger girls to see," said Ficarrotta, who worked her way into a starting role late this season. "I want them to never give up and keep working hard because you never know what's going to happen."
 
Jobe said each senior has contributed to the program in their own way.
 
"With Olivia and Jacqueline, they've had some unfortunate injuries, but they continue to show up to practices, work hard and encourage their teammates," Jobe said. "Ysmina has played a big role as an outside back with lots of minutes, and she remains somebody that we can rely on.
 
"(Ficarrotta) is a really special story in terms of her development. She's improved a lot in areas that we asked her to attack, and she's seeing her hard work be rewarded."
 
The Lady Demons are aiming to translate their hard work this season into a postseason bid with two regular season matches remaining.
 
After Sunday's match against Nicholls, NSU ends its season with an Oct. 26 trip to Central Arkansas before the tournament begins Oct. 31 in Beaumont, Texas.