HOUSTON—A strong second half from Houston Christian was too much to overcome, as the Northwestern State soccer team fell 2-1 on the road Sunday afternoon in a Southland Conference contest at Sorrels Field.

NSU (4-9 overall, 2-4 SLC) led 1-0 at halftime, but HCU (4-8, 2-4) received goals from Emily Jaimes and Kat Lazor in the second half to capture the lead, which it would not relinquish.

"Overall, I don't think we played well," first-year head coach Ian Brophy said. "We lost too many individual matchups. I give credit to Houston Christian. They created several chances and really competed, putting us under pressure. They won every loose ball and played awesome and really deserved the win."

The Huskies applied pressure to begin the second half and Jaimes broke through in the 55^th minute when a shot by Mia Salas from the top left of the box clanked off the right post and ricocheted down to Jaimes in the box, who booted it in with her left foot.

Jaimes tied for the lead in shots with four with Ryan Ford. Salas and Xya Balderas each attempted three shots for the Huskies.

Five minutes later, Lazor found the back of the net to push HCU into the lead. From way outside the top of the box, Lazor blasted a shot that hit the inside of the left post and went into the back of the net.

Both shots were perfectly placed against NSU goalkeeper Libe Banuelos, who had another strong performance. The junior backed up her 14-save showing at Lamar with nine more stops against HCU.

"Libe had another really strong performance, particularly in the first half," Brophy said. "We were up 1-0 at halftime because of her. She made five or six really big saves to keep them off the board. She has been a constant bright spot throughout the year for us."

The Lady Demons had a golden opportunity to knot the game at 2-2 in the 77^th minute, as Dawson Marrs drew a penalty kick as she was pushed in the back near the end line in the box.

Taylor Spitzer attempted the penalty kick, but her boot was stopped on a diving save by HCU goalkeeper Chloe Bagshaw as Spitzer tried to go bottom right of the goal, one of Bagshaw's two saves.

HCU's defense held NSU to just a single shot attempt the rest of the game.

Of NSU's seven shot attempts, Spitzer recorded three of them, one of which was on goal.

While HCU took the lead in the second half, the Lady Demons tallied the only goal in the first half.

Despite the Huskies out-shooting NSU 11-2 in the opening 45 minutes, the Lady Demons held a 1-0 lead at the break thanks to Emme' Fernandez's second goal of the season.

Fernandez scored off assists from Caroline Hilliard and Emily Gundin, the latter of whom takes the lead in helpers with two.

In the 34^th minute, Fernandez scored from the box off a deflection. Hilliard sent a cross in to Gundin, who tapped it to Fernandez, and her shot was deflected off Lazor and caught Bagshaw off guard and it finds the back of the net on the bottom right of the goal.

The goal is Fernandez's second on the season, tying herself with Sabrina Lopez for the second-most on the team.

HCU controlled play much of the first half, though, but Banuelos made seven of her nine saves in the first 45 minutes to keep the Huskies off the board.

Perhaps her biggest save came in the 19^th minute, robbing Alexa Huerta in front of the net. Huerta was one-on-one with Banuelos, but the goalkeeper made a kick save to keep the game scoreless at the time.

NSU wraps up a three-match stretch on the road with a visit to in-state rival McNeese on Friday before coming home for two consecutive contests, beginning Oct. 15 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.