CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas—The regular season is over and it is win or go home time for the Northwestern State soccer team, as it begins the Southland Conference Tournament on Wednesday.

First up for fourth-seeded NSU (6-10-1 overall, 4-5-1 SLC) is the host school, fifth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (7-8-3, 4-5-1).

The contest kicks off at 7 p.m. at the Dr. Jack Dugan Soccer and Track & Field Stadium.

"We know it is going to be a tougher game than the last matchup," first-year head coach Ian Brophy said. "They are at home and it is the conference tournament. We know they are playing in front of their home crowd on their home field.

"The last time they had to come to Natchitoches after a tough game on that Friday. This is a tournament game and everybody is ready. It is going to be a lot tougher matchup this time around and we're ready for it."

NSU is aiming to channel a bit of magic from the last time it made the trip to Corpus Christi for the conference tournament, as the Lady Demons won a pair of 1-0 contests in 2021, including in the tournament title game against UIW, to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

"We won the tournament there two years ago," Caroline Hilliard said. "I feel like we can do it again. We know this turf and we know what it's like and we know how the wind is. The veterans who were on the team two years ago as well as Sabrina (Lopez) can give tips and tricks on how we can be successful and go win again."

The winner takes on regular season champion Lamar on Friday. As the conference champ, the Cardinals earned a bye in the first round of the SLC Tournament.

NSU played perhaps its best game of the season in the regular season meeting with the Islanders, winning 2-0 on goals by Halee Griffin and Emily Senatore.

In the game, the Lady Demons attempted 22 shots, which was a season high at the time, outshooting the Huskies 22-5.

That goal started a scoring string by Senatore. In the last game at Nicholls, Senatore scored twice in the second half to earn a tie after being behind for much of the contest.

"She brings an extra level of clinical finishing into her game, which I think is great," Brophy said. "We saw that against Nicholls with two very clinical finishes from close range to put the goals away. When she does those things, it's pretty special for us and shows what she can do in this conference in terms of goal scoring ability."

A banged-up Islanders team has lost three in a row, including falling at NSU. After scoring 10 goals in its first seven league games, TAMUCC didn't score in its final three.

After struggling for much of the season, the Lady Demons offense has come alive in the past three games. NSU has scored two goals in each of the past three games after doing so only once in its first 14 contests this season.

Not only is the offense coming alive, but the freshmen are also making their mark in this offensive surge.

During this stretch, NSU has scored six goals in its last three games, four of them have come via freshmen, with Senatore scoring three and Julia Pinho Magno scoring the other goal by a freshman.

In addition to the goals, three assists have been credited to freshmen and three more by sophomores.

Freshman Emily Gundin and sophomores Jessica Spitzer and Madison Murphy tallied the assists in the victory over TAMUCC.

Halee Griffin scored her first two collegiate goals in back-to-back wins against TAMUCC and Houston Christian.

Sophomore Gabby Marshall, who came over to NSU from Mount Olive with Brophy, has been a major impact off the bench in recent games. During league play, she has played at least 30 minutes in five games.

Her speed has made a major impact whenever she enters the game.

"From playing midfield, my speed has helped my transition into a defensive role," Marshall said. "From being midfield, you have to be quick and make decisions quickly and go up the field. Playing as a defender, that background makes me have more of an attacking mindset going up the field. I'm looking for everything, trying to play quickly.

"I am always thinking 'if I was a midfielder, how would I want balls played into me.' So that background has helped me play quicker in the back, and my speed has a lot to do with that."

In NSU's last three games, the offense has recorded 61 shot attempts, including a season-high 24 in the tie at Nicholls. The Lady Demons have attempted double digit shots in each of the past four games after doing so just five times in the first 13 games.

Defensively, Hilliard leads a unit that had allowed just one goal in the previous two games prior to the game at Nicholls. She has played in four conference tournament games in her first two seasons with the Lady Demons and she will help lead a defense that doesn't have the same Division I conference tournament experience.

The quartet of Hilliard, Alina Graf, Madison Murphy and Jessica Spitzer have started a combined 63 games on defense this season.