NATCHITOCHES—A new season brings both new and an old foe to the Southland Conference soccer schedule.

The SLC climbed the total back up to nine, as it added Texas A&M-Commerce and Lamar returned to the league following a season in the Western Athletic Conference.

The 12-game conference slate begins for the reigning SLC regular season and tournament champs at home against UIW on Sept. 11 and the returnee to the conference Lamar on Sept. 16.

The league schedule follows a six-game non-conference slate, which includes an exhibition match against Little Rock on Aug. 13 to kick off the season.

NSU heads on the road for four consecutive matches to start regular season action under second-year head coach Stuart Gore. That stretch begins on Aug. 21 at Louisiana Tech. The road swing also includes trips to Arkansas State (Aug. 25), SMU (Aug. 28) and Grambling (Sept. 4).

The Lady Demons play in front of the home fans for the first time in the regular season against Jackson State on Sept. 9 before league play begins on Sept. 11 against UIW.

NSU's first road games in SLC action come against Southeastern Louisiana (Sept. 18) and the first matchup with TAMUC (Sept. 25), starting a stretch of four out of five contests away from Natchitoches.

Following a home game against Houston Baptist on Sept. 30, the Lady Demons hit the road for two more against McNeese (Oct. 2) and Lamar (Oct. 7).

The Lady Demons finish with three out of five at the friendly confines of the Lady Demon Soccer Complex, hosting Nicholls (Oct. 9) and TAMUC (Oct. 16) before finishing with road contests against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Oct. 21) and UIW (Oct. 23) and a home date with SLU (Oct. 28) to round out the regular season.

For the first time since 2011, NSU hosts the SLC Tournament, as it welcomes the conference to the Lady Demon Soccer Complex, aiming to become the first team to win the conference tournament when hosting since NSU did it in 2005.

NSU tries for its second straight SLC Tournament crown, which goes from Nov. 2-6.