NATCHITOCHES—The opponent may be different, but a familiar face comes to Natchitoches for the home exhibition.

Chris McBride, the former head coach at Southeastern Louisiana, brings his UL Lafayette soccer team to Natchitoches for the first exhibition contest in the tenure of new Northwestern State head coach Ian Brophy.

The first and only home exhibition contest begins at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Lady Demon Soccer Complex.

"It will be nice to be able to play in front of the home crowd and we should get a good crowd given that it's move-in day and all the freshmen will be buzzing around and we're really excited about that," Brophy said.

McBride was 1-5-1 against the Lady Demons while with SLU but did win in a penalty kick shootout in the Southland Conference Tournament in the spring of 2021 on its way to a tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth.

Northwestern State, coming off its fourth consecutive season finishing in the top two of the conference regular season standings, is breaking in 15 new players on the 26-person roster.

NSU is tasked with replacing 38 of the 44 goals (86.4 percent) and 103 of the 123 (83.7 percent) of the point production from 2022.

Of the six goals returning, sophomore Taylor Spitzer recorded four of them.

As a freshman, Spitzer scored her four goals and tallied 10 points in just 11 games before missing the final six games due to injury.

As good as the offense was a season ago, the defense has been its calling card for the past four years.

NSU returns a talented group of defenders, including 2021 SLC Freshman of the Year Caroline Hilliard, who played in all 19 games in 2022, starting 11.

One of the defenders with expanding playing time this season will be Taylor Spitzer's twin sister, Jessica Spitzer. The sophomore played behind some of the greatest players in the history of the program and she is prepared to take what she learned and incorporate them this season.

"Playing behind some of the greats on defense last year helped me so much," Jessica Spitzer said. "They taught me so much, especially how to play here and what makes a player successful here. They were a huge help."

Among the newcomers, Brophy has mentioned Alina Graf as just one of many having an impressive camp.

"Alina and the goalkeepers have all played really well, so that is been really exciting," Brophy said. "Our newcomers have all hit the ground running and it is great to see people like Riley (Stern) and Mia (Dupuis) play, who didn't play last year. They've had a good camp and have been fun to watch."

After redshirting in 2022, Stern is excited to be back, helping her team.

"I had a lot of time to really get fit and get stronger and faster and get my left knee back up to speed," she said regarding coming back from injury. "I'm really excited to finally get to play in front of the home crowd. There's nothing like it and I am excited to get back out there and hopefully we can get a win."

In the history between the two schools, the Ragin' Cajuns hold a slight 9-8 edge over NSU. The Lady Demons won the last matchup in 2019 in double overtime, which stopped a six-game ULL winning streak.

Brophy is focused on execution, rather than the final score in the exhibition match.

"I'm not as consumed with the score as much as how we play," Brophy said. "I would like to see the things we try and practice if we can execute those in a game. I am looking forward to seeing those things during the game."

NSU opens the regular season Aug. 20 at North Texas with the regular season home opener coming Aug. 27 against Rice.