HOUSTON — Northwestern State women’s soccer team found many positives last time out and is aiming for more progress and consistency when it faces Houston on Thursday, in a third consecutive road game against a power conference team.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. for a contest that can be watched on ESPN+.
Despite falling last time out 5-0 at LSU, the Demons (0-2) saw many improvements from the opening game at Oklahoma, starting with being in a scoreless tie going into halftime.
In the first 45 minutes, the Demons went toe-to-tie with the 16th-ranked Tigers. LSU broke through in the first 15 minutes after the half for three goals, then added two late scores after 20 more scoreless minutes, so Northwestern coach Ian Brophy is aiming for more consistency and putting it together for a full 90 minutes.
“What we are looking to do is keep improving the performances while keeping the intensity high,” Brophy said. “We want to keep that intensity and focus we had against LSU in the first half and stretch that over 90 minutes and be more consistent. If we do that and do the little things well, we should be able to get some results.”
NSU had chances to find the back of the net but were ultimately thwarted by the powerful SEC defenses at OU and LSU. Paige Baumgartner and Emily Gundin recorded two shot attempts and caused problems for the LSU defense.
However, arguably the biggest bright spot in that first half was the play of goalkeeper Saki Tsuchiya, who made three saves with two being impressive stops to keep the game scoreless in the opening 45 minutes.
“We learned a lot from the first game against Oklahoma,” junior defender Kate Bouck said. “I think both of those first two games exposed places we need to work on as opposed to if we were playing teams not as talented. They were able to expose some things we need to work on, so we can fix those things early.”
Houston (0-0-1) has been off since Aug. 12, a scoreless draw on the road against Florida Gulf Coast.
The Cougars are coached by Ben Williams, who spent a season at Stephen F. Austin in 2024, before making his way to Houston. In his one season with the Ladyjacks, he led them to the conference regular season and tournament championship.
This offseason, he brought in one of his former goalkeepers in Sierra McCluer from SFA, and she wasted little time impressing for her new team, as she pitched a shutout against FGCU, recording three saves.
“Playing against a power conference team is never easy,” freshman forward Alexia Adimmah said. “I am really happy my team stayed motivated throughout the game, despite the score. I am really happy of the grit we have, even if things didn’t go our way in the first two games.”
NSU continues its string of five consecutive games on the road to begin the season with a trip to UL Lafayette on Sunday before wrapping up the stretch with a visit to Alcorn State on Sept. 3. The Demons return to Natchitoches to start their home schedule on Sept. 6 against Louisiana Tech.