BEAUMONT – Northwestern State co-head coach Jess Jobe said his team's weekend got much simpler after its Friday night loss at McNeese with a game at Lamar looming Sunday.

It's not that Lamar is any easier of an opponent than McNeese – the Cardinals are the defending Southland Conference champions who are coming off a convincing 3-1 win against league power Central Arkansas.

But now the Lady Demons (6-4, 0-2 SLC) can focus on just one opponent after possibly overthinking a tough road weekend which involved preparing for champion Lamar and No. 3 seed McNeese from 2017.

"In some ways, this was a daunting weekend for us, and I think it got the better of us," Jobe said. "We had two tough opponents on the road, and we didn't get the result we wanted Friday (4-0 loss at McNeese), but we needed to have a simpler approach.

"Maybe we had some anxiety about it. But now we have one opponent in front of us, and we'll come out Sunday looking to get something out of this weekend."

NSU's first three conference matches have been against teams that finished in the top three in 2017 – No. 1 Lamar, No. 2 Stephen F. Austin and No. 3 McNeese.

The Lady Demons measured up in the opener this past weekend, outshooting SFA 18-4 in a 1-0 loss.

NSU competed in the stats Friday against McNeese (13-9 shots and 10-8 shots on goal), but the Cowgirls created more quality opportunities and knocked in four goals against an NSU defense that had allowed just nine goals in its first nine games.

"McNeese was really organized and ready to take advantage of their opportunities," Jobe said. "We've got to learn from it, take that experience and channel it into a better effort Sunday."

Lamar (5-3, 1-0 SLC) won its league opener Friday after most of the conference's scheduled opening weekend was rained out one week ago.

The Cardinals have won three of their last four contests, including a 5-0 win against Southern and a 4-3 overtime victory over Texas-San Antonio.

NSU also beat Southern 5-0 and outshot UTSA in a tough 1-0 loss to open the season.

But the Lady Demons will need to flash more of the offense that ranked No. 2 in the nation with 30 goals and not the attack that has been shut out four times, including in both conference matches.

NSU is one of only two 0-2 teams in the conference entering Sunday, not including a Nicholls squad that is 0-1 after not playing its league opener.