NATCHITOCHES—It's been a long nine months for the Northwestern State soccer team.

The team has been stewing over a loss in penalty kicks to Lamar in the Southland Conference Tournament semifinals, as the Lady Demons just missed a chance to win their second conference tournament championship in three seasons.

NSU is using that as fuel as it begins the 2024 season Thursday when it welcomes in-state foe Southern to Natchitoches for an exhibition contest.

Kickoff begins at 3 p.m. at the Soccer Complex.

"With our first regular season home game not until Sept. 1, we wanted to make sure we had a home scrimmage," head coach Ian Brophy said. "It was great to get Southern to come here. It will be a great test for us and great preparation.

"We are excited about getting the community out here to support us."

Thursday marks the second consecutive year the teams have met in an exhibition match, as NSU took home a 1-0 win in Baton Rouge last season on a goal by Taylor Spitzer.

"What they will give us is showing us where we're at right now," Brophy said. "They're going to be a very good Division I team this year that will pull off some good results. We know how we perform in this match is a good litmus test in terms of what the non-conference will look like and the season moving forward."

After a week of practice, NSU is happy to see a foe with a different colored jersey.

"I'm super excited to go out there and play somebody else," junior defender Gabby Marshall said. "I think everybody is super excited to go out there this year because I think we're going to do really good things."

Most, if not all, of the 32 athletes on the team will see the field.

A year ago, the team was unsure about how the season would go. The team ended the season in a familiar territory, the conference tournament semifinals.

In 2023, the team had 15 newcomers and just 11 returners.

This season, NSU returns 21 players from last season, as it aims to build upon the success of the final stretch of the 2023 season.

While it has 21 returners, it still welcomed 11 new faces to the team.

The 11 newcomers—nine freshmen—coming in this season are finding their way in their first season at NSU.

"I still think we are trying to figure out our place on the team," freshman midfielder Ravina Sandhu said. "We sort of interact with people who we're playing positionally with and mingle with some of the older girls and get some of their perspectives on how things are here. There have been no cliques or groups, it has been one family."

NSU returns 78 percent of its point production from 2023, led by junior Taylor Spitzer, who led the team in goals (4), points (9), shots (57) and shots on goal (21) a season ago.

Spitzer was named Second Team All-SLC last season.

Emily Senatore, who tallied NSU's only multi-goal game in 2023 with two in the regular season finale at Nicholls, scored three during her freshman campaign.

Emily Gundin led the team with three assists.

NSU returns its goalkeeper, Libe Banuelos, as well.

Banuelos, who transferred to NSU last season from Louisiana Tech, stopped 90 shots last year, posting a 1.38 goals against average and collected four solo shutouts and one combined one.

Seeking goal scoring, Brophy dipped into the transfer portal to grab a pair of prolific goal scorers, Kassi Schoen and Paige Baumgartner.

Prior to arriving in Natchitoches, Schoen spent four seasons with Alabama State. In her four years in Montgomery, Schoen tallied 16 goals and helped lead ASU to the conference championship in the spring of 2021.

Baumgartner comes in as a transfer from Seminole State College, where she was named an NJCAA Division I Second Team All-American and First Team All-Region after scoring 17 goals and dishing out 15 assists for a total of 49 points.

Following the exhibition, NSU starts off the regular season with a trip to the Metroplex to face SMU on Aug. 15 in a homecoming for many Lady Demons.