DALLAS—"I'm coming home, I'm coming home. Tell the world I'm coming home."

The Northwestern State soccer team is no stranger to the Dallas area, as the Metroplex has been a pipeline to Natchitoches for years and it is no different this season.

Eleven players from the Dallas area, as well as the rest of the team makes the trip to Texas, as NSU opens its season on the road at SMU on Thursday.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at the Washburne Soccer and Track Stadium.

The match is being televised on ACC Network X.

The 11 players hail from cities less than 50 miles away from the SMU campus, led by seniors Caroline Hilliard (Corinth), Emily Mougia (Sachse) and Sara Fernandez (Van Alstyne).

"I am super excited," Hilliard said. "A lot of family and friends from home will be coming to the game. I am excited to go home and see my family. It is really exciting since it is my last season opener.

"Being a senior, this trip back home is a little more special and we are really excited for this challenge and to see where we are at."

Joining those three are Isabella Queneau (Lucas), Taylor Spitzer, Jessica Spitzer and Bailey Porter (Allen), Madison Murphy (Frisco), Paige Baumgartner (Rowlett), Riley Stern (Fort Worth) and Dawson Marrs (Denton).

"There are a lot of Dallas girls on this team, so it feels like a home game," Mougia said. "We'll have that same energy going that we have on the home field, so it is really great to see that."

The trip to SMU marks the sixth consecutive season NSU opens the season on the road. In the previous five season openers, NSU is 2-2-1, with both victories coming at Louisiana Tech.

"We know this will be a tough game," head coach Ian Brophy said. "They are going to be athletic and they're going to move and they are going to be good in possession. But I think if we play our way, we'll be in the game every step of the way."

It is the first of three consecutive contests to begin the season against power conference teams.

The game also marks the first game as a member of the ACC after competing in the American Athletic since 2013.

The contest is the first game NSU has played against a team in the ACC the date the game was played. SMU is the only opponent currently in the ACC that the Lady Demons have played.

SMU leads the all-time series 4-0, with all games coming in Dallas. However, the Lady Demons pushed the Mustangs in the last meeting in 2022, a 1-0 SMU victory.

Just four current NSU players played in that 2022 game.

The team aims to continue where it left off last season, not losing in regulation in any of the final three games of the regular season or either of the two SLC Tournament games.

Taylor Spitzer, one of the players making a return trip to the Metroplex, was the leading scorer for the Lady Demons a season ago, scoring four goals and tallying nine points.

Among her four goals was a goal at LSU to cut the deficit to a single goal.

Spitzer, along with twin sister Jessica Spitzer, was named to the preseason All-Southland Conference team.

Those two were joined by Hilliard and sophomore Emily Senatore.

Senatore found the net three times as a freshman in 2023, tied for the second most on the team, only behind Taylor Spitzer.

Three of those four are heading back to the Metroplex, aiming to pick up a huge win in front of family and friends.

Following the match, NSU prepares for a pair of road games against SEC competition, starting with a trip to Mississippi State on Sunday.