THIBODAUX—A top four seed in the Southland Conference Tournament is in its sights as the Northwestern State soccer team heads to Nicholls to conclude the regular season.

The kickoff is at 7 p.m. at the Thibodaux Regional Sports Complex.

NSU (6-10 overall, 4-5 SLC) clinched a spot in the SLC Tournament following a victory against Houston Christian and is currently in sixth place in the conference standings with one game left in the season.

With a victory over Nicholls (1-17, 0-9), the Lady Demons earn no worse than a five seed because Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is off this week. With a win and a Southeastern Louisiana loss to regular season champion Lamar, NSU earns the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament, which begins Wednesday in Corpus Christi, Texas.

"It will be a really tough game," first-year head coach Ian Brophy said. "Their stats or their record doesn't necessarily show how good they are. They will be a tough team to play in the sense that they have nothing to play for and they get to play with a certain level of freedom, which is dangerous.

"We know we need to bring our best and need to be focused and ready to play. If we do that, we can pick up a win, but we need to play our best game."

The Lady Demons have won two games in a row for the third time this season after the win on Sunday against HCU but are aiming for the elusive third consecutive victory.

In the triumph against HCU, NSU received goals from Halee Griffin and Julia Pinho Magno, with the latter tallying the game-winner in the 74^th minute to break a 1-1 deadlock for her first career goal.

Griffin, a senior from Hutto, Texas, found the back of the net in her final game in front of the home crowd against HCU to give NSU the lead at halftime.

It is the second straight game with a goal for Griffin, the first two goals of her collegiate career.

"Halee has really taken a lot of the pressure off herself and she has really worked hard in training the past few weeks, which is a sign of how she has been able to improve," Brophy said. "She's been scoring goals the last few weeks in training and you can see it translating.

"We've told her all season long that she has the ability to score goals, so it is good to see her getting in dangerous areas and putting balls in the back of the net."

The Lady Demons scored at least two goals in two consecutive games after tallying at least two goals just once in the first 14 contests.

While Griffin has been a strong piece offensively recently, some new faces have made their presence felt in the last two games. Of the four goals in the past two contests, two were scored by freshman and two more freshmen tallied assists.

Overall, five players tallied their first collegiate point in the last two games.

Emily Gundin, one of those freshmen, recorded one of the assists in the win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. She also crossed the ball into Griffin to help set up her goal against HCU, even if she didn't record an assist.

While she has not found the back of the net as of yet, Gundin has posted three helpers on the season, the most on the team.

"Scoring is something I am still waiting for," Gundin said. "Hopefully it will come in the tournament, but assisting is something I have always done very well with.

"Just seeing all the smiles on my teammates faces, especially Halee Griffin, who hadn't scored her first goal until a few weeks ago. Being one of her closest teammates and doing that for her is something I'll always remember."

When allowing one or fewer goals, NSU is 6-1, with the lone loss coming on the road to conference champion Lamar.

The Lady Demons defense has surrendered just one goal combined in the past two games and many of the shots given up have not been in dangerous areas.

Caitlin Le Roux, a junior defender from Adelaide, Australia, stresses communication and trust as a big reason for the defense's strong play.

"It is important, as a defense, to have each other's back no matter what," Le Roux said. "If someone makes a mistake, you are there to clean up their mess. I've had a lot of my fellow defenders clean up my mess and vice versa, so having that communication between each other and that trust is building and the most important thing on defense is trust, knowing your teammates will go out there and do their job to the best of their abilities."

When the defense has allowed shots on goal, goalkeeper Libe Banuelos has been there. The junior is coming off a six-save outing in the win over Houston Christian.

Banuelos has four solo shutouts and was a part of another combined one at Jackson State. She is second in the conference in overall saves with 73.

NSU has dominated overall in the series, going 29-2-2 all-time, including winning the last six. It is also gone 12-4 in Thibodaux.

Nicholls has struggled offensively, having been shutout in five straight games and has generated eight goals on the season, four of which came in its lone win, a 4-1 victory against Texas Southern.

Last time out, the Colonels pushed SLU on the road, trailing by just one until the final 10 seconds of the game.

Following the match, the Lady Demons head to Corpus Christi for the conference tournament Wednesday for the quarterfinals. If NSU continues to win, the semifinals are Nov. 3 and the finals are Nov. 5.