NORMAN, Okla.—One season ago, Northwestern State pulled off its most significant regular season win in the history of the program with a season-opening upset of No. 19 Texas.

NSU aims for similar success when it travels to Oklahoma on Wednesday for its regular season opener, the start of a string of three consecutive to start the season against power conference teams and the first of five straight on the road overall to begin the season.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at John Crain Field, and fans who cannot be there in person can watch the game on SEC Network+.

"Oklahoma is going to be a really tough matchup for us," head coach Ian Brophy said. "They're going to be really athletic, good on the ball and have good players at every single position. It is going to be really tough, but we've been in these types of games before, and it is about focusing on ourselves and the things we want to do. If we do that, we should be okay, but we know it will be tough to go in and get a result."

It is the first trip to the state of Oklahoma since a 4-4 tie at Oral Roberts in the regular season opener in the SLC championship-winning season of 2021.

NSU played two exhibition games and Brophy is excited about what he saw and for the potential this season.

"Something that came from the exhibition games that I am really excited about was how strong we are in terms of depth," he said. "We've been really strong in possession and defensively. We've been able to learn a lot through this preseason and I'm excited to take it into the real games now."

The Demons come into the season with high expectations, returning four all-conference performers from a season ago, which led them to be voted first in the Southland preseason poll.

NSU brings back 2025 first team selections Paige Baumgartner, Hosane Soukou and Riley Stern, all of whom are in the top five in returning goal scorers in the Southland Conference.

Stern leads the Southland returners in assists from last season, as she dished out nine helpers, and her 11 total assists are now just one shy of breaking into the top 10 in school history in that category.

Baumgartner's eight goals lead the SLC in returners in the Southland.

In the victory at Texas last season, Soukou scored in the 61^st minute to tie the score at 2-2, and Stern recorded one of the assists on the goal.

Then-freshman Kendall Hemperley scored three goals overall in 2025, but two of them came in the SLC Tournament to earn her a spot on the all-tournament team.

After finishing the season on a high note, she plans to carry that momentum into 2026 as a sophomore.

"Ending the season on a high, personally, was great," she said. "It led me into the Spring very well as well since I scored three goals in the three games we had. Going into the season on that is amazing."

The Demons brought in eight new players, many of whom project to be major factors this season.

One of those is defender Rhiley Potteiger, who is a native of Sand Springs, Okla. The transfer from Southern Miss returns to her home state for the first time collegiately, and she is excited to return to her home state for the regular season opener.

"It is definitely going to be a special game," she said. "I am going to have a lot of friends and family there to watch and support me. It's also fun because I know a lot of girls on the OU team and it's going to be a fun game against each other."

In her two seasons at USM, she played in 23 games with 11 starts.

Oklahoma is one of 10 states represented on the team, as well as three different countries. The states represented on the Demons roster are California, Florida, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Ohio, Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma and Georgia, and the countries with members on the team are Canada, Japan and England.

Following the match, the Demons stay in-state as they travel to LSU on Sunday to finish up the week before heading to the state of Texas for a matchup with Houston on Aug. 20.