AUSTIN, Texas—Northwestern State is no stranger to playing difficult non-conference contests to begin the regular season.

In all three of Ian Brophy's seasons at the helm, the Demons have challenged themselves right out of the gate and that includes this season when NSU opens the season with a trip to No. 19 Texas.

It kicks off at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Mike A. Myers Stadium and Soccer Field and can be viewed on SEC Network+.

"We always want to test ourselves early in the season and test ourselves against big opposition," Brophy said. "Having these games right off the bat to try to play at such a high level, so when we get into conference play, we're playing at that really high level, so it is important to get off to a really strong start.

We've done this the last couple years, testing ourselves early. The other side of that is if we make an NCAA Tournament run, we know we'll see teams like this, so want to be ready for that."

NSU enters the season after improving its win total from six to 11 in year one to year two in the Brophy era and aims to make it a step further this time around after reaching the Southland Conference Tournament semifinals in each of his first two seasons.

The Demons took a big jump offensively in 2024, scoring 35 goals and dishing out 36 assists, both are among the top marks in program history for a single season.

NSU returns leading goal scorer from last season, Emily Senatore, who comes off a first team all-conference selection.

She scored eight goals and tallied 17 points, including putting five in the back of the net during SLC play.

Senatore is one of four returning players to score multiple goals in 2024, being joined by Paige Baumgartner (3), Dawson Marrs (2) and Jessica Spitzer (2).

As a team, NSU returns 54 percent of its goal scoring from last season.

Defensively, the Demons must replace goalkeeper Libe Banuelos, who started nearly every game in net the last two seasons.

At goal, Rist is the goalkeeper who has experience at NSU and a pair of talented freshmen back her up in redshirt freshman Audrey Marfia and true freshman Sabrina McCarter.

In front of Rist is a veteran back line, led by second team all-conference selection Jessica Spitzer and graduate student Emily Mougia.

Mougia makes her return to the field after suffering an ankle injury in the first half of last year's season opener, which caused her to miss the rest of the season.

"It feels amazing to be back," Mougia said. "I am surrounded by a great group of girls who supported me throughout the whole journey of my injury, so it feels great to get back and play with them again."

The Demons bring in two transfers—Anika Sproxton and Kate Bouck—who will help a defense that surrendered more than one goal just three times in 12 games against SLC teams a season ago, including the tournament.

"I would say the chemistry is something we're improving on," Spitzer said. "I do think it is very good and is kind of similar to our first season when Alina (Graf), Caroline (Hilliard) and I all working together and I feel like we did a good job of maintaining that chemistry throughout those years and we're doing a good job of trying to get to that level right now."

NSU returns a now-healthy trio of Mougia, Riley Stern and Ravina Sandhu, who started a combined 15 games of the 18 they played in 2024.

The Demons being in a group of five freshmen—Hosane Soukou, Kendall Hemperley, Gabriela Page, Tayla Crandell and McCarter—to help them try to make the next step.

NSU rounds out the opening weekend with a trip to the Metroplex, as the Demons face SMU for a second consecutive season, their second of three straight to begin the regular season on the road.