By: Jonathon Zenk, Assistant Director of Communications
NATCHITOCHES—The Northwestern State soccer team has accomplished many feats this season it had not done since 2005.
The team can add one more, as it aims for its first unbeaten home schedule since that 2005 season with a victory over UIW on Sunday to finish up the home portion of the schedule.
Kickoff is at noon and fans who cannot be physically at the Demon Soccer Complex can watch the game on ESPN+.
NSU (10-3-3, 5-1-1) can move itself to the doorstep of a Southland Conference regular season title with a win over UIW (4-6-3, 2-3-2), as it is currently four points ahead of second-place Stephen F. Austin with three matches to play.
"UIW is a very good team," head coach
Ian Brophy said. "We can expect another really intense matchup with them. It's going to be a good match and will be about who can impose its style of play on the game and who can control the game.
"We have to make sure we're executing on those details and if we do that, we'd love to finish the season unbeaten at home and give us a platform to finish the regular season the way we'd like to."
The Demons are on a stretch of four straight games scoring at least two goals, the second consecutive season in which that has occurred. In those four games, NSU has out-scored its opponents 10-2 in those four games.
That stretch includes a strong outing in the last one against McNeese, a 3-0 win this past Thursday.
NSU has four of the top six point scorers in the SLC in all games, led by
Emily Senatore, who is currently second with 23 points. She is followed by
Hosane Soukou (16) in third,
Riley Stern (14) in fifth and
Paige Baumgartner (13) in sixth.
Soukou and Baumgartner each scored in the victory over McNeese and Soukou contributed to all three goals with a goal and a career-high two assists.
The defense for the Demons has been strong throughout the entire season, but even stronger in front of the home crowd.
NSU's stingy defense has surrendered just three goals at home this year, including just one goal during league play, which came in a 2-1 victory over Southeastern Louisiana earlier this month.
Kennedy Rist has been one of the best goalkeepers in the Southland this season, leading the league in both goals against average and save percentage in both overall games and conference contests.
While the Demons have Soukou, UIW has a talented freshman of its own in Atiana Lara, who leads the Cardinals in goals (4) and is tied for the team lead in points (8). Sinead Duffy has three goals and two assists to equal Lara's eight points.
However, UIW hangs its hat on its defense, as the Cardinals have surrendered just 18 goals this season, which is third in the Southland, and goalkeeper Hannah Alexander has posted a 1.38 goals against average.
Following the match, the Demons finish the regular season with two consecutive contests away from home, starting with Lamar on Thursday before concluding the regular season at Nicholls on Oct. 30.