BEAUMONT, Texas—With the Southland Conference regular season championship in hand, it must quickly turn its attention to the Southland Conference Tournament.

Securing the tournament's top seed, the Demons (12-4-3) see a familiar face to begin the conference tournament, taking on No. 8 McNeese (4-11-4) on Tuesday.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m. at the LU Soccer Complex on the campus of Lamar. Fans can view the game on ESPN+.

In the meeting earlier this season, the Demons used a flurry of goals in the middle of the game to roll to a 3-0 victory in Natchitoches.

"McNeese is a strong team," head coach Ian Brophy said. "They are really stout defensively and we know we are going to be in for a tough match. They are going to make it really tough on us and we are going to have to take advantage of our opportunities and make sure we test the goalkeeper with shots on frame."

After suffering just its second loss in SLC play, NSU responded with a dominant performance in the regular season finale at Nicholls. With the outright title hanging in the balance, the Demons controlled the game throughout in a 5-0 victory.

"We got back to what we do best," Brophy said. "I was really excited to see us play our way and play our best futbol after the Lamar game and hopefully we carry that momentum into the tournament."

As the SLC regular season winner, the Demons were well-represented on the All-Southland Conference teams.

NSU earned the player (Emily Senatore), freshman (Hosane Soukou), midfielder (Senatore), defender (Jessica Spitzer) and coach (Ian Brophy) of the year.

Senatore, Soukou and Spitzer earned first team honors, along with Paige Baumgartner and Riley Stern.

Kennedy Rist, who has won four goalkeeper of the week awards, collected second team honors, as did sophomore defender Emma Pethel.

"It's been a lot of fun this year, making a difference and helping my team get to where we are at," Rist said. "It has been a tremendous experience this year so far and I am really excited to see what comes next in the conference tournament.

Senatore earned the school's third conference player of the year award in the last five seasons after Olivia Draguicevich won it in 2021 and Gracie Armstrong in 2022.

Soukou, on the other hand, won the fourth freshman of the year for NSU. Among the previous three is current NSU graduate assistant Caroline Hilliard, who won the award in 2021.

Spitzer joined her former teammate Nicole Henry as the only NSU players to win defender of the year.

McNeese features Alexi Pitt, who was named to the All-SLC First Team on Monday, the lone Cowgirl to earn an all-conference selection.

NSU is aiming to reach its sixth tournament semifinals in the last seven seasons and third straight under Brophy.

The last time the two teams met in the conference tournament was in 2022 in Natchitoches when the Demons used a pair of Gracie Armstrong goals to roll to a 5-0 win over the Cowgirls.

That was the last NSU conference tournament game that did not go into overtime, as the past five have all gone beyond 90 minutes.

In 2023, NSU was knocked out on penalty kicks to Lamar and last year, the Demons lost in overtime to Stephen F. Austin.

Now, this group of Demons is determined to make it further.

"This year, our mindset is different," Senatore said. "This year, we have had a really good season and that itself gives us more fuel to make the NCAA Tournament. A bunch of girls on the team went through the last two years with me and it stinks losing in the semifinals, but everyone on the team has complete faith in us to do it."

The winner of the game plays the winner of No. 5 Houston Christian and No. 4 East Texas A&M on Thursday at 4 p.m.