BEAUMONT, Texas—Death. Taxes. Northwestern State playing an overtime game in the Southland Conference Tournament.

On a team with seven players who made the All-SLC performers, it was one who just missed out on the honor who kept the Demons (13-4-3) alive.

Kendall Hemperley, a freshman from Katy, Texas, found the back of the net off a free kick at the bottom right post from Madison Murphy with three seconds left in overtime to give top-seeded NSU a 1-0 victory in the SLC Tournament quarterfinals against McNeese (4-12-4) on Tuesday afternoon at the LU Soccer Complex on the campus of Lamar.

Dawson Marrs earned the free kick near midfield, as the Demons hurried up to the ball and Murphy booted the ball into the box against the wind, where it was headed by a McNeese defender and landed at the foot of Hemperley who kicked the ball through the legs of McNeese goalkeeper Celeste Marijnissen for the winner.

"The feeling of scoring in the last few seconds of overtime is definitely a surreal feeling," Hemperley said. "Especially since it was one of my first collegiate goals. My thought process was 'Oh my Lord, I can't believe we did that.'"

Marijnissen, who made seven saves and had a terrific day for the Cowgirls in net, couldn't make one more. The Demons out-shot McNeese 23-4, including 17-2 in the second half and overtime.

It is Hemperley's second goal of the season and first since finding the back of the net at Mississippi Valley State in August.

The game marked the sixth consecutive overtime game in the conference tournament for NSU, a streak that dates back to 2022.

"It felt good to get the win in the end," head coach Ian Brophy said. "I think we can learn a lot from this game and that's what I told the team afterwards. There's definitely a lot to take away from this and things that we can learn and take from this game into the into the rest of the playoffs and our semifinal on Thursday.

"It was gritty, it was a fight. McNeese played really well and fought hard all day. I thought we had a tough first half and didn't play our best soccer, but then in the second half we were able to pick it up and start to play a lot better and carry that into the overtime period and I really did feel like either we were going to win or it's going to go to penalty kicks, so I was really happy to see us come out on top and get the win."

After scoring five goals in the regular season finale at Nicholls, NSU proved it can grind out victories too, as it was defensive-minded slugfest in the first half with NSU leading 6-2 in shots and the first shot of the contest didn't come until the first of eight shot attempts from SLC Player of the Year Emily Senatore in the 16^th minute.

An attempt from Annie Stook in the 32^nd minute hit the crossbar was arguably the top chance for NSU in the first 45 minutes.

McNeese hit the crossbar as well on a shot from Elizabeth Edomwonyi in the 26^th minute, which helped keep it scoreless at the break.

The Demons dominated the second half and overtime, living in the offensive zone, but the McNeese defense stood tall.

Senatore had a chance early in the second half, but her shot was blocked near the top of the box in the 51^st minute.

The game drew many similarities to last year's tournament quarterfinal win over Southeastern Louisiana, one of which was the corner kick opportunities.

NSU had 13 corners as well as a number of free kicks and it was just a matter of time before one found the back of the net. Like last year, it was late in overtime, but ultimately, the Demons sent one to the back of the net.

That carried into the extra period, one in which NSU dominated, earning four corners and hardly letting McNeese out of its defensive end.

"Our team isn't fazed by overtime games," Brophy said. "It's just a little bit more soccer and I think with the way our team has been through it so many times now that even when we went to overtime, I called the team over, and I said 'this is what we do.' We handled it really well and you can tell we have that experience and now the new players who hadn't been through that now have that experience, so I think it'll be a good thing for them."

The Demons have a rematch with No. 5 Houston Christian on Thursday in the semifinals, as HCU dominated No. 4 East Texas A&M 4-0 in the first game of the day.