NATCHITOCHES—After its best performance of the year in a victory at league-leading Lamar, the Northwestern State women's soccer team returns home to round out the weekend with a battle against a hungry Nicholls team in a Southland Conference contest on Sunday at the Lady Demon Soccer Complex.

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

NSU (6-3-3 overall, 3-2-2 SLC) received two goals from Gracie Armstrong to lift NSU to the 2-0 win at Lamar for the Cardinals first defeat of the season. Those two are her first two tallies of the season and she has seven total points, which is fourth on the team.

Nicholls (2-11-1, 0-7) has not won a conference match since 2018, a 2-0 victory against Stephen F. Austin, but broke a long losing streak overall with victories over Jackson State and Alcorn earlier this season.

"(Nicholls head coach) Robert (Podeyn) is getting there in turning the program around," NSU women's soccer coach Stuart Gore said. "The team is way better than it was last year. They aren't getting the results that they want, but in conference, there are way more teams that have to take them more seriously than maybe ever before.

"It's great to see that there isn't a team this year that is everybody's whipping boy and Nicholls certainly isn't that this year."

The Lady Demons are 28-2-2 overall in the series with the Colonels, having won the last five in the series. At home, NSU has never lost to Nicholls, posting a 14-0-2 mark.

One of the assists on an Armstrong goal last match came off a pass from Emily Mougia. After playing six games as a freshman, Mougia has already played in 11 contests in her second season and credits her work in the offseason for her improvement to earn the minutes.

"I think this offseason, I just got out there, keeping my head down and work hard as much as I can," Mougia said. "I just had to keep myself accountable and keep working on myself."

Last season, NSU won twice against Nicholls by a combined 6-0 score with three goals coming off the foot of leading scorer Olivia Draguicevich.

Emme' Fernandez, a transfer from Montana, has come on lately, recording three points in her last four games. She has four total points on the season.

Taylor Spitzer and Natalee Henry each have registered eight points on three goals and two assists. Spitzer has alternated games with goals her last six contests.

At goalkeeper, Chloe DeShazer is fresh off her fourth shutout of the season, including third in league play. Her goals against average (.714) is tied for second in league play and her shutouts are tied for second.

Once again, the defense was outstanding, allowing Lamar to attempt just four shots in the game, only one of which was on frame, which DeShazer stopped late in the game to preserve the shutout.

"We have a lot of toughness on the back line," freshman defender Madison Murphy said. "We communicate really well and on top of toughness, we make sure we do whatever we can to keep opponents off the board. Whether that means running through a tackle, we do anything to make sure they don't score."

While the team is noticeably better, Nicholls is being out-scored 22-2 in league play and has dropped every contest in conference by at least two goals.

The Colonels were in front of McNeese on the road to begin the game before the Cowgirls responded with three straight.

Rami Mitchell leads Nicholls in points with five, scoring one goal and dishing out three assists. Jemma Catherwood is the lone Colonel with more than one goal, tallying two for four points.

In goal, Megan Cook allowed three goals last time out at Houston Christian, but prior to that, only surrendered two in more than 265 minutes, including zero against Lamar.

Following the match, NSU wraps up its stretch of two consecutive contests at home with a visit from Texas A&M-Commerce on Oct. 16 before heading back on the road for a pair of games.