SAN ANTONIO—The road has been great to the Northwestern State soccer team this season.

NSU has one more chance to play away from home when it finishes its road portion of the schedule with a trip to UIW.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m. at Gayle & Tom Benson Stadium.

The Lady Demons (9-3-3 overall, 6-2-2 Southland Conference) boast a 5-1-3 record away from Natchitoches with its one loss coming at then-No. 15 SMU. In that record in an undefeated 3-0-2 mark in SLC competition, including handing Lamar its only defeat of the season.

NSU's latest road victory, a 2-1 win at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, put it in a prime spot for a top two seed in the SLC Tournament, as it is four points up on TAMUCC, Houston Christian and Texas A&M-Commerce with two matches to play. A win in San Antonio would guarantee no worse than the No. 2 seed.

The all-time series favors NSU 9-2-1, including both a 1-0 win earlier this season and a 1-0 victory in last season's SLC Tournament title match.

"UIW is a very strong and physical team," NSU women's soccer coach Stuart Gore said. "It's their senior day and they have some really high-level seniors who want to go out on a high note. It will be a battle."

Hallie Field's offense has come alive, as the defender has scored three goals on the season, including one each in the previous two contests, both of which were game-winners.

But the defense is still the calling card for Field and NSU.

The team has surrendered just one goal and 15 shots in its past four games combined, which has resulted in four victories.

After falling behind early, Caroline Hilliard scored the equalizer in the first half against TAMUCC and is the 12^th NSU player to find the back of the net and 17^th to record a point.

Olivia Draguicevich has scored nine goals this season, which leads the team and is second in the conference. One of those times she found the back of the net was in the first meeting, the lone tally in a 1-0 shutout of the Cardinals.

The senior's 33 goals are the second-most in school history, two behind Britiany Cargill's program record of 35.

Senior goalkeeper Chloe DeShazer's .667 goals against average in overall games is second in the league while her .600 GAA in conference games are second in the conference for players with at least 500 minutes. She is tied for the conference lead with five shutouts in conference play.

UIW (3-9-3, 2-6-3) has shown the ability to be giant killers in the league this season. The Cardinals went 1-0-1 against HCU, which is tied for third in the conference.

Due to this being the final game of the regular season Sunday and the loss last time out against TAMUC, UIW was eliminated from the conference tournament race.

The Cardinals are led by the terrific offensive duo of Keeley Ayala and Sierra Wannamaker. The pairing has combined for 10 of the 15 goals scored by UIW this season and 22 of the 35 points.

When each player scores, the goals come in bunches. Ayala's six goals have come in three games, scoring two in all three, while Wannamaker's four goals have come in two games, including a hat trick against Texas Southern on Sept. 4.

Goalkeeper Margaret Kofron has a 2.09 GAA but stopped a season-high nine shots out of 10 shots faced on goal in the first meeting between the two. She also stopped nine shots in UIW's last game against Texas A&M-Commerce.

Following the match, NSU returns to Natchitoches for the final regular season contest at home against Southeastern Louisiana on Oct. 28. They remain home as NSU hosts the conference tournament starting Nov. 2 at the Lady Demon Soccer Complex.