ITTA BENA, Mississippi—The Northwestern State women's soccer team takes a quick road trip for one game to the state of Mississippi for a clash with Mississippi Valley State on Sunday.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m. at the Mississippi Valley Soccer Complex.

NSU (2-1-1) is fresh off beating one SWAC opponent before taking on the second of three consecutive opponents from the conference.

The Demons used two first half goals from Paige Baumgartner and Emily Senatore and brilliant play in net from Kennedy Rist to hold off Alcorn State 3-1 in the home opener this past Sunday.

Once again, Rist took home the Southland Conference Goalkeeper of the Week award after stopping seven of eight shots, including mammoth stops in the second half against Alcorn. Among those saves was a penalty kick save that kept the Demons in front 2-1 early in the second half when the Lady Braves were applying tremendous pressure on the NSU defense.

"We're all so proud of her and as a back line, it makes us feel so much more confident and re-assured that we have a keeper who is so aggressive and will put herself on the line in every situation," sophomore defender Emma Pethel said. "That PK that she saved gave us that extra boost of energy to push through and finish the game strong."

The two teams met last year in Natchitoches when the Demons scored five second half goals as they rolled to a 7-0 victory. Among the goal scorers was Emily Senatore, who leads the current squad in both goals (3) and points (6) through four games.

Senatore, a reigning First Team All-Southland Conference selection a season ago, has help on offense in the form of Baumgartner and freshman Hosane Soukou, who has scored twice and recorded five total points.

"I feel like this year, our wingers are getting a lot wider, which is helping our offense," sophomore Ravina Sandhu said. "It is really helping us spread the field and use them better, especially Paige in the last game with how wide she was able to drive down.

"We're a lot more aggressive in the right areas and the staying wide thing Coach Ian has really pushed on us in the last few practices has been really helping our offense."

The ball movement has been outstanding for NSU, as the Demons have six assists on their six goals with all six of the assists coming from different players.

"Our ball movement has been great," head coach Ian Brophy said. "It is probably the thing we've worked on the most in the last two years, just with that flow and how we work together. I give the credit to the team and the players. Honestly, the way they have formed relationships off the field and the way they've been able to connect with each other over the summer, in the preseason and now as school started; that has been a big reason why we've been able to have this offensive success and see those connections thrive on the field."

The game is set to be a challenge for the Demons due to the unknown, as MVSU has yet to play a game this season. After their first two games were canceled, the Devilettes game at home against Southern Miss that was supposed to be played on Thursday was postponed to a later date due to weather.

"Even though we played them last year, we're approaching this game as a clean slate," Brophy said. "We had a good game when we played them last year, but it was our Senior Day and there was a lot of emotion. This year, they are a bit of an unknown quantity. We're just keeping the focus on ourselves and doing the right things, and we'll see the right benefits and outcomes from that."

Gone is last year's leading scorer Liana Bryant from MVSU, who transferred to Grambling, which NSU plays next.

Of the 13 goals scored a season ago by MVSU, it returns just one, which came off the foot of Genesis Hernandez.

Following the match, NSU returns back to Natchitoches for home contests against Grambling (Sept. 4) and UL Lafayette (Sept. 7).