By: Jonathon Zenk, Assistant Director of Communications
HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—Following its first victory of the season, the Northwestern State soccer team aims to finish off a weekend sweep when it travels to Alabama A&M on Sunday.
Kickoff is at 11 a.m. at the Bulldog Soccer Field.
The Demons (1-4-1) broke through with a four-goal performance in a 4-0 win Friday evening against Jackson State.
The Northwestern State players and coaches felt once they saw one find the back of the net, the goals would come in bunches.
Paige Baumgartner, a junior from Rowlett, Texas, had been close to breaking through in previous games, but she scored a goal 51 seconds in to give the Demons a fast start.
Emily Senatore added two goals and
Riley Stern scored her first collegiate goal to round out the scoring.
Senatore is the only Demon to score multiple goals in a game since the start of the 2023 season, and she has done it twice, also doing so at Nicholls in the regular season finale last year.
Kora Fry, playing against her former team, recorded three saves in posting a combined shutout after relieving
Libe Banuelos.
Fry played in each of the last two meetings against her old school, recording four saves in more than 66 minutes of shutout soccer.
In the past three games, the Demons defense has surrendered just one goal and has limited dangerous scoring chances against UL Lafayette, Abilene Christian and JSU.
AAMU (1-5) is in the midst of a four-game homestand, having gone 1-1 to this point, winning 3-2 against West Georgia before falling 5-1 to Middle Tennessee.
"It will be a tough game," head coach
Ian Brophy said. "After beating West Georgia, they will come in with some confidence. We'll need to play well to get out with a win, like being good in possession and playing well defensively."
The Demons aim to continue their strong with play with a game against the Bulldogs, which have allowed 20 goals so far with AAMU allowing at least two goals in each game.
It is the second meeting all-time between the two schools. The only other meeting was a 1-0 Demons victory in Natchitoches last season, with the only goal coming via a
Taylor Spitzer penalty kick in the 65
th minute.
"We want to look at how we played against them last year and use that as momentum to play even better than we did last year against them,"
Jessica Spitzer said. "But, they are a completely different team than last year, so we will need to be on our toes."
Following the contest, Northwestern State comes back to Natchitoches for three straight games, starting with a visit from Tarleton State on Thursday.