HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Northwestern State senior April Trowbridge raised her hands in celebration as she crossed the ball to Kylee Dominy, who appeared to find the equalizer with about 12 minutes left against Sam Houston State.

But the officials ruled the ball touched the back boundary line before Trowbridge's cross, and SHSU held on for the 1-0 win Friday.

NSU (7-7, 1-5 SLC) has outshot or tied its opponent in four of its five Southland Conference losses this season, a trend that continued Friday with both teams attempting 17 shots.

The Bearkats' (2-8-3, 1-3-2 SLC) first shot on goal was the difference maker as Lindsey Bienski's seventh minute goal was the game winner.

Bienski fired a shot into the upper part of the goal on a Meredith Carlson assist.

"It's another game in which we watched a goal that we could have prevented," said NSU co-head coach Jess Jobe. "We're continuing to realize that we play an unforgiving game, and you have to make teams fight hard for every point they get.

"The learning curve is very steep right now … but we did respond well and were the better team in the second half. We spoke directly to the back line at halftime and told them we needed more from them, and they did respond."

Senior April Trowbridge, who still leads the league with 11 goals, took a match-high five shots. Freshmen Skylar Sorrell and Kylee Dominy put both of their two shots on frame as NSU had seven shots on target.

But SHSU goalkeeper Christina Hendershot made seven saves and recorded her second shutout of the season, which snapped a 12-match winless streak.

The Lady Demons sent wave after wave of attacks in the second half, owning an 11-7 shots edge after halftime.

"We had some chances on the opposite side, and it didn't come up for us tonight," Jobe said. "I thought Hendershot played a great game – she was the player of the game in my opinion."

One save in particular stood out as Sorrell fired a shot across the frame in which Hendershot dove to tip wide.

Freshman goalkeeper Sydney Normand made her second career start, allowing one goal with three saves in 58 minutes.

Redshirt sophomore Kayla Bomben entered in relief, saving four shots in 31 minutes.

"Sydney played a great game, and we made the change to Kayla for tactical reasons because Bomben plays higher off her line as we were chasing the game.

"We were stretched a couple moments in which (SHSU) was counterattacking, but we played it well to keep to a 1-0 game as we tried to claw our way back into it.

Bomben kept NSU close late in the contest when she came off her line for a slide tackle that stopped an SHSU two-on-one advantage.

Normand also had a standout save in the first half in which she tipped a well-struck shot over the crossbar.

Friday's contest is NSU's only competition this weekend, but the Lady Demons continue its three-game road trip next weekend at Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.