HOUSTON—The Northwestern State soccer gained more offensive confidence last time out after a seven-goal outburst and aim to carry that when it jumps back into Southland Conference play as it travels to Houston Christian on Sunday.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m. at Sorrels Field and can be viewed on ESPN+.

NSU (6-2-3, 1-0-1) poured in seven goals for the second time this season in the win last game against Prairie View A&M, led by Emily Senatore's first collegiate hat trick.

"HCU is going to be tough," head coach Ian Brophy said. "They've had a strong non-conference season, and they look really good. In some polls, they've been picked to finish really high in our conference, so I am curious to see how this game goes. It will be a battle of styles, a little bit. It will be about who can impose their will and hopefully it's us."

Senatore, a junior from Oxford, Conn., is closing in on the top 10 for career goals at NSU. Her 19 career goals are two out of cracking the top 10.

The seven team goals against Prairie View are more than it scored in the previous five games combined.

The offense has scored at least three goals five times this season, matching its three-goal output from a season ago. The Demons have put home 26 shots, which is tops in the conference, with three players—Senatore (8), Hosane Soukou (5) and Paige Baumgartner (4)—all ranking in the top eight.

It was a game of firsts for three Demons, as freshman Gabriela Page and sophomore Ravina Sandhu both knocked in their first collegiate goals, while sophomore Bailey Porter recorded her first career points, as she recorded three assists on the last three goals of the game.

After not having a player dish out three assists in a game since 2014, the Demons have had two players do just that in the past seven games, as Porter joins Riley Stern, who recorded three assists in the victory at Mississippi Valley State.
While the offense has generated most of the attention, the Demons have played shutdown defense as well.

NSU has posted three consecutive shutouts, including two to begin SLC play. Overall, the Demons defense has only surrendered three goals in the past nine games, which has helped them go 5-1-3 during that stretch.

Against the Panthers, the NSU back line rarely allowed Prairie View A&M to have possession in the offensive zone, and the Demons allowed just four shot attempts in the dominant victory.

Kennedy Rist, who has three SLC Goalkeeper of the Week awards already this year, leads the SLC with a 0.72 goals against average and save percentage at .857.

"Having Kennedy as our goalkeeper lights a fire under us," Baumgartner said. "It doesn't just help us offensively, but all over the field, because we all should be striving to win the type of awards Kennedy has won and it helps us push harder as well."

HCU (5-5-1, 0-0-1) scored a late goal in the 2024 meeting in Natchitoches to salvage a tie and has gone 2-1-1 in the last four matchups with the Demons.

Following the match, the Demons are back at home for two in a row, beginning Thursday against Southeastern Louisiana to kick off Homecoming weekend before welcoming Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to Natchitoches on Oct. 9.