CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas—Throughout her career, Hallie Field has been known for her tenacious defense. But in her last two, she has proven she knows how to put the ball in the back of the net as well.

That continued Friday evening, as Field's goal in the 66^th minute gave Northwestern State (9-3-3 overall, 6-2-2 Southland Conference) a thrilling 2-1 road victory against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at the Dr. Jack Dugan Soccer and Track & Field Stadium.

Field, who scored the lone goal in the victory this past Sunday at home against Texas A&M-Commerce, put home a shot from the top of the 18-yard box into the bottom right corner of the goal past a diving Kennedy Stelling to break a 1-1 deadlock.

With NSU's victory against TAMUCC and Lamar's win against Houston Christian, NSU is now four points clear of the three teams (HCU, TAMUCC and TAMUC) in the three-way tie for third place. One win will clinch a top-two seed in November's SLC Tournament.

The victory also improved the road record to 5-1-3 overall and 3-0-2 in league play.

While the game ended well for NSU, it could not have started much worse. TAMUCC (8-6-1, 5-4-1) dented the scoreboard first in the opening minute of the game.

On the opening rush of the contest, Maggie Murray sent in a cross to Rebekah George. The cross missed the NSU defenders and found its way to George, who sent it past Lady Demons goalkeeper Chloe DeShazer for the early 1-0 lead.

But the NSU defense put the clamps on the potent Islanders offense the rest of the way, surrendering just four shots with two on frame in the final 89 minutes of action.

With the defense settling in, the offense got to work. In the sixth minute, Gracie Armstrong nearly tied the game, but her shot was deflected by Stelling and clanged off the post.

Northwestern State did find the back of the net to tie the score in the 19^th minute. Caroline Hilliard found open space just outside the top left corner of the 18-yard box and blasted a shot that went top shelf over a leaping Stelling for the sophomore's first career goal.

"I feel their goal woke us up," NSU women's soccer coach Stuart Gore said. "That isn't exactly what you want to happen, but I thought we dealt with it.

"Then Caroline steps up and hits a banger for her first college goal, which was great and everyone was so happy for her. We dominated most of the game and then Hallie steps up again with a great finish. It was the first time this season we've come from behind to win, which is fantastic for us."

TAMUCC had a golden opportunity to take the lead just before halftime, but DeShazer came up with a monster save on Storm Harris on a 2-on-0 break to keep the game tied. DeShazer and NSU were campaigning for an offsides, but it was not called.

NSU controlled much of the remainder of the game, holding an Islanders offense that led the league in goals coming in, to just one shot in the final 44 minutes of action and none in the final 28 minutes.

The defense, which had come in off three consecutive shutouts, held two of the conference's leading scorers, Morgan Westbury and Megan Guy, both without a shot.

Olivia Draguicevich, just two goals away from tying the school record, attempted a game-high four shots as Northwestern State out-shot the Islanders 15-5. NSU has now out-shot its opponent in 14 of 15 contests this season.

NSU finishes its road portion of the schedule Sunday afternoon when it travels to UIW for a 1 p.m. kick before rounding out regular season play with a home date with Southeastern Louisiana. The SLC Tournament starts Nov. 2 at the friendly confines of the Lady Demon Soccer Complex.