STEPHENVILLE, Texas—The confidence level is high within the Northwestern State soccer team, as it wraps up its string of three straight road contests beginning the season, as it faces Tarleton State on Thursday evening.

NSU (1-1) meets Tarleton State (1-1) in a rematch of a hard-fought 1-0 Demons win in 2024. This time around, the match is being played at the Tarleton State Soccer Complex.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. and can be viewed on ESPN+.

The Demons are off to a strong start to the season, playing right with a pair of power conference teams, including the massive victory at No. 19 Texas in the regular season opener.

Last time out, NSU had two clank off the crossbar and one more shot hit the post in a 2-0 defeat at the hands of SMU.

For their efforts for the win at Texas, Emily Senatore was named Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Week, while Kennedy Rist was named SLC Goalkeeper of the Week.

Senatore scored twice, including knocking home what turned out to be the game winner in the 72^nd minute at Texas, while Rist stopped 13 shots to preserve the big win.

"I wasn't really nervous for those games," Rist said. "I was just really excited for the opportunity to play such a great team with my teammates. We've been working so hard throughout preseason, so I saw it as a really good opportunity for us to showcase who we are."

Freshman Hosane Soukou also found the back of the net, scoring in her first career game with the Demons.

After not finding the back of the net until the sixth game last season, NSU didn't wait long to score in 2025, scoring in the fifth minute in the season opener.

"It is all about taking advantage of our opportunities," Senatore said. "Obviously, Texas is a really good team and we had seven shots and all seven were on frame. That shows we were taking advantage of our opportunities, and it comes down to that, whether you have two opportunities or 50, you have to take advantage of them."

The strong opening weekend also helped them be ranked No. 9 in the United Soccer coaches Midwest Region top 10 regional rankings.

It is the second all-time meeting between the two schools. In the only other meeting between the Demons and Texans, Isabella Ruggiano scored in the late first half to propel NSU to a 1-0 victory last season in Natchitoches.

That was the third win in a string of seven consecutive victories for NSU.

Eight starters from that game for NSU return.

Tarleton is no stranger to matches against the SLC, as this is the third straight game to begin the regular season against the SLC, having played UTRGV and Houston Christian already.

The Texans won 1-0 against UTRGV before falling to HCU 3-2.

"They are intense," head coach Ian Brophy said. "They play a great brand of soccer in terms of the intensity and effort they bring. We'll have to work because they work really hard and we have to make sure we out-work them."

Stevie Reynolds has scored all three goals for Tarleton State this season, recording all three in the first 15 minutes of game action.

The Demons are back for their home opener against Alcorn State on Sunday, the beginning of a stretch of three out of four games at home, also playing Grambling (Sept. 4) and UL Lafayette (Sept. 7).