COMMERCE, Texas—One season ago, Northwestern State played Houston Christian with a trip to the Southland Conference Championships on the line.

In that one, the Huskies scored a late goal to escape with a win and eventually the conference tournament crown.

This season, the third-seeded Demons (10-9) and second-seeded Huskies (9-3-8) play on Thursday in the tournament semifinals once again with another trip to the conference tournament finals on the line.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at the Lion Soccer Field and fans can watch on ESPN+ if they are unable to attend.

Each team is coming off thrilling victories, as NSU received a second half goal from Emily Gundin to knock off McNeese and that game was followed by HCU advancing to the semis on penalty kicks against host school East Texas A&M.

The top four seeds are in the semifinals, and the winner of this one will battle the winner of No. 4 UIW and No. 1 Lamar on Sunday in the tournament championship game.

"We're going to have to play a good game," head coach Ian Brophy said. "We need to execute like we did against McNeese and play a sound game and play even a little bit better than we did against McNeese. We know HCU will have a bit of possession, so we'll have to play well defensively as well. I do think we are ready for it and we need to play our game."

The Demons aim for revenge against the Huskies after falling 2-1 a year ago in the conference tournament. In the regular season matchup this season, HCU won 3-1 in Natchitoches in October.
Since the start of 2022, the Demons have gone 1-5-1 against the Huskies, including HCU winning the last three.

Every year since 2021, NSU has made the semifinals in the tournament, but have been bounced in gut-wrenching fashion in that round every season since 2022, with two coming in overtime and one more in penalty kicks, and last year when HCU broke a 1-1 deadlock in the 83^rd minute.

"They beat us earlier this season and we have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder," Brophy said. "They have all these All-Conference players and we only have one and we know we can play with them. We felt we outplayed them in that game outside of a 15-minute stretch where they were able to pick up three goals. For us, it's about putting together a full 90-minute performance and making sure we're focused from the first minute to the last."

Gundin, a senior from Valrico, Fla., scored the biggest goal of her career in the second half of the first round against McNeese, which stood up as the lone goal of the game.
She took over the team lead in points with 23 and is tied for the team lead with eight goals.

Making her second consecutive start at goalkeeper, Saki Tsuchiya recorded her first shutout of the season against McNeese, recording three saves, two of which were game-savers.

HCU did not lose during conference play, going 5-0-5, which helped earn the Huskies earn seven All-Conference selections, even more than league champion Lamar.

The Huskies have not lost since August when losing to SMU, going 8-0-7 since. Dating back to last season, HCU has not lost in 15 straight matches against Southland opponents, which includes the tournament title run last season culminating with an overtime win over Stephen F. Austin in the final.