COMMERCE, Texas—A familiar in-state opponent awaits Northwestern State as the Southland Conference Tournament begins.

For the second consecutive season, third-seeded NSU (9-9) takes on sixth-seeded McNeese (9-7-3) in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament on Tuesday at the Lion Soccer Field on the campus of East Texas A&M.

Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. and can be watched on ESPN+.

In last year's matchup, the game went into overtime before Kendall Hemperley scored in the 100^th minute to give the Demons a 1-0 victory.

The Demons are aiming for revenge, as McNeese won the first matchup 4-1 early this month in Lake Charles.

"That was probably our worst game of the season in terms of our execution," head coach Ian Brophy said. "For us, it's the perfect game in terms of getting some redemption and having the ability to set things right. It is the first round of the conference tournament, and we know we have something to prove.

"It's not going to be an easy matchup, as we saw firsthand how good McNeese is and made us pay for our mistakes in the first game. We beat them in last year's tournament, but this is a different McNeese than last year, and we know we'll have to play really well and we're going to have to execute at a high level. If we do that, we can win the game and advance to another semifinal."

In the game, Rhiley Potteiger scored her first career goal, but a Cowgirls first half flurry saw McNeese score three first half goals to take control of the rivalry game early.

Even in defeat, the Demons know they can take quite a bit from the first meeting.

"I think we can take a lot from the first game," freshman defender Addi Lehnertz said. "It wasn't our best performance by any means. I think we are coming into the tournament with a new level of grit and resilience because we took that loss pretty personally since it wasn't our best performance."

NSU had one player—Riley Stern—voted to the SLC All-Conference teams, while McNeese had four, including first team selection Rhiannon Maynes-Tourond.

It is the second straight all-conference selection for Stern after making the first team a season ago.

For the season, Stern had five goals and six assists with two goals in Southland play.

While the Demons only had one on the all-conference, the team is a sum of its parts. While NSU led the league in goals scored during Southland play, only Tiana Cruz has scored more than two goals in league play, and she found the back of the net three times.

"It's been great this season not just having to rely on one or two main scorers," graduate forward Paige Baumgartner said. "We've had so many players score at least five goals and it proves we have a really good attacking offense."

Maynes-Tourond has scored six goals and dished out two assists, while fellow all-conference performer Sumayah Brown has also found the back of the net six times.

In the first meeting, Brown proved to be a handful, as she scored two goals.

Midfielder Isabella Baltov and goalkeeper Shannon Dempsey also were named all-conference from McNeese, the latter of whom did not play in the regular season meeting.

The two teams are familiar with playing each other in the Southland Tournament, as the Demons not only played the Cowgirls last year, but also two other times since 2019.

In 2019, NSU won in overtime on an Olivia Draguicevich goal, and in 2022, NSU rolled 5-0 on the strength of a pair of goals by 2022 Player of the Year Gracie Armstrong.

The Demons have advanced to the semifinals in each of the last five seasons and six of the last seven.

The winner plays the winner of No. 2 Houston Christian and the host school No. 7 East Texas A&M in the semifinals on Thursday evening.