CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas—"I love my role. Coach Nimz always says that if you own your role, you will impact winning. I feel like a lot of people would not like this type of role, but how I am, I am a fighter and gritty, I love it and I am down always to do it."

Every team has players who have and embrace roles.

Not every player is a 20-point per game scorer. However, every team needs a player like Carla Celaya, who does everything she can to help the team win.

Celaya, the native of Barcelona, Spain, does a lot of what people may not notice on a box score.

That box score? She can certainly fill that up too, though.

In the Demons (15-13, 12-8) last meeting with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (5-22, 4-16), she scored 11 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out three assists for one of her two double-doubles this season.

She has the chance to continue dominance against AMCC when it travels to the island for the final road game of the year Saturday.

Tip-off is at 1 p.m. and it can be viewed on ESPN+ or fans can listen to it on KZBL 100.7 FM.

After an injury to Nia Hardison in last season's Southland Conference Tournament, it started to click for Celaya, having to step in and do many of the same tasks Hardison had. She has always bought into her role, but it started to click after that.

"I feel I started growing into my current role at the end of last season and at the beginning of this season," Celaya said. "While everyone focuses on points, my strength has always been defense. After Nia was injured in the tournament last year, I had to step up for her, and I knew I had to take care of business."

On box scores, what people may notice when an opposing guard is shut down, or at least slowed down. Celaya can be thanked for that.

Every game, Celaya guards one of the top opposing perimeter scorers, and many times, some of the best in the league.

"She's been a defensive specialist for us for three years," head coach Anna Nimz said. "You don't win without a Carla. You don't win without somebody who is so bought into her role and how to help the team have success.

"In her three years, she's been a bulldozer of a kid, a bright light in our program, is fun to be around and is great in both the classroom and community. Her buy-in and growth throughout her time here has been phenomenal."

She also played a major role in two big Demons victories this season with key defensive stops late.

Against one of the best teams in the conference in Lamar, she made the key final defensive stop to lift the Demons past the Cardinals.

With NSU clinging to a 59-57 lead late, Celaya locked up Lamar's Shaila Forman on a drive and Forman stumbled and lost the ball out of bounds with a second to play, and NSU went onto win 60-57.

Just two weeks later, she did it again, helping seal the win at Nicholls.

Once again, NSU was clinging to a two-point lead at 48-46 in the final 10 seconds. Celaya locked up Nicholls leading scorer Tanita Swift, forcing her to miss and help earn a big win. In addition to her defense against Swift, Celaya grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds.

She has always been a major force defensively, and after one season at Vermont, Celaya was looking for a new home in the summer of 2023.

After talking with Nimz, Celaya knew NSU was the place for her.

"When I had the first phone call with Coach Nimz, she explained the dynamic of the team," Celaya said. "From the first moment, I knew this was what I was looking for. Coach also brought a lot of energy, which is the type of energy I bring."

Going from Spain to Vermont to Louisiana can be a bit of a culture shock, but it did not take long for her to feel right at home, as the Demons had three other foreign-born players on the team, including another Spaniard.

"After the first month here, I felt at home," Celaya said. "All my teammates were so welcoming and trying to help each other. It took a bit to get used to each other's accents since there were other international kids on the team, but everyone was so welcoming that I knew this was a good place to be."

Throughout her time at NSU, she has used her trademark toughness and grittiness to her advantage. Not only does it show up with her being a pest defensively, but also on the glass, fighting for rebounds.

Like in that Nicholls victory, she is a monster on the glass, gobbling up rebounds like Pac-Man gobbles up Pac-Dots.

Celaya is second in the Southland in both overall rebound average (7.7) and rebound average during SLC play (8.2) and has recorded double digit rebounds eight times this season, including seven times during Southland play. That includes 11 rebounds in the first game with AMCC, one of two double-doubles this season, with the other coming in a non-conference tilt with Purdue Fort Wayne.

She is also always available, having not missed one game during her time in Natchitoches, which also is a testament to her toughness.

There's an old adage in sports about the best ability being availability. Well, she has played 90 games in her three seasons in Natchitoches.

She averages nearly 31 minutes per game this season and is a part of a starting five that has started every game this season, one of just 12 programs in Division I that can make that claim.

During her three seasons, she has loved her time as a Demon and has credited NSU for helping her grow on and off the floor.

"I have been growing as not only a player, but a human being during my time here," Celaya said. "Being surrounded by different cultures, makes you see different points of view that you may not else have seen."

As her time winds down at NSU, while she is thankful for NSU, Celaya has meant a lot to the program and the Natchitoches community.

She has at least three more contests left as a Demon and aims to help the Demons reach their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014-15.

"We have a deep appreciation for Carla and what she's done over the course of her career here," Nimz said. "She's a great kid who will have success."