Over a month of non-conference competition, following weeks of preseason training, culminates tonight as Southland Conference contests begin for Northwestern State’s soccer and volleyball squads, both on upward trends.
SOCCER: The defending SLC champion Demons (3-5, 0-0), riding a three-game win streak, kick off at home tonight and go on the road Sunday against arguably NSU’s two biggest rivals in the league.
Up first is a perennial title contender, Lamar (4-1-3, 1-0). Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at the Demon Soccer Complex with ESPN+ coverage. Sunday, Northwestern visits Stephen F. Austin.
“We do like having one of our biggest games at home right away,” head coach Ian Brophy said. “The way we’re playing, we do like it, because we are coming in off some confident play and playing well, so I love when we’re in form like this, getting a big game.
“This is a really tough test. Lamar is on a very good run and is a a really good team and we know they’ll be fighting at the top of the conference with us. We had this last year with SFA early in the year, so hopefully we can get the conference season started off right.”
The game features two of the teams in the conference with a three-match winning streak. Lamar has already played in a league game, scoring in the closing seconds to knock off UTRGV 1-0 last Thursday.
The Demons have been on a record-setting homefield run, as they have gone 13 games in a row without being beaten, tied for the best mark in school history.
Under Brophy, the Demons are 20-3-4 at home, including 15-1-4 since the start of the 2024 season.
NSU has also won seven straight Southland openers, dating back to 2019.
NSU is coming off three consecutive wins to wrap up non-conference play, winning its first road game of the season, a 4-2 victory at Grambling this past Thursday.
“We have really figured who we are as a team,” Brophy said. “We’ve been able to put together some wins the last three games and build some confidence and figure out the kind of team we are. We have a pretty good identity now going into conference play.”
VOLLEYBALL: Tonight in Houston, the Demons’ red-hot volleyball team opens its SLC schedule against the Houston Christian Huskies at Sharp Gym in Houston at 6:30 p.m. with coverage on ESPN+.
Under second-year coach Ben Kaszeta, the Demons (8-7) enter Southland play winners of seven of their last eight. They had a seven-game winning streak snapped Saturday by the Troy Trojans on their homecourt. After a 1-6 start to the season, the Demons enter conference play with eight wins and three Southland Player of the Week awards.
“We’re growing every game,” said Kaszeta. “We made some mistakes in some of the games and recovered well. But we’re still trying to get over that third set slump. But I thought we really responded well against Troy. That’s a really good team with a lot of upper classmen. They popped us in that first set but we gave ourselves a chance in the second and third sets but came up short so I like where we’re at.”
Last week, NSU’s Emmarie McFarland earned Defensive Player of the Week while Olivia Nzioki was tabbed Offensive Player of the Week.
This past Monday, Jade Longlad received SLC Setter of the Week. Longlad, a senior setter, leads the SLC in assists with 476 and is 12th in the country. The Calgary, Alberta, Canada native, Longlad is closing in on 1,000 career assists as she enters Thursday’s game with 877.
HCU (2-10) has dominated Northwestern in recent seasons. The Demons are just 1-9 in their last 10 games against the Huskies including a pair of sweeps last season.
The road trip continues Saturday at UIW. Next week, NSU is home Thursday and Saturday.