A key comeback win on the road Sunday by the Northwestern State soccer team highlighted a busy weekend in fall sports action for NSU teams.
SOCCER: In Nacogdoches, Texas, the defending Southland Conference champion Demons came back from a deficit three times and Tiana Cruz scored in the 85th minute to give NSU a 4-3 victory at Stephen F. Austin.
After dropping its first five contests of the season, Northwestern (5-5, 2-0) has won five in a row, including taking the first two in conference play against its two biggest rivalsand championship challengers.
“Obviously, it was a really good result, coming from behind three separate times,” NSU head coach Ian Brophy said. “It was a good and exciting game and I am glad we were able to get the goals we needed to put it away, especially that fourth one to put us in front.
“It just goes to show your our resiliency and we’ve shown it all year, and that was on display today, coming back from a goal down three times and then getting the lead late.”
Cruz, who scored her fifth goal in five games, found the back of the net after Emily Gundin won a fight for the ball and crossed it to Cruz, who sent it home top left of the goal.
With the Demons clinging to a 4-3 lead in the final minutes, birthday girl Audrey Marfia came through in the clutch, making a save to seal the win.
SFA’s Savanna Oberholtzer was 1-on-1 with Marfia, but the Demons goalkeeper came out and repelled the shot.
The teams alternated the first six goals, as SFA (4-8, 1-2) scored to take the lead three separate times.
Bonnie Miller scored her first two goals as a Demon with a pair of impressive shots from far out. NSU dominated in shots 25-10, led by five each from Gundin and Paige Baumgartner. Miller and Riley Stern each had four.
The Demons hit the road again Thursday when they face UIW for the only game this week before returning home Oct. 8 against East Texas A&M.
VOLLEYBALL: The Demons lost for only the second time in nine matches Saturday when they were defeated 3-1 (25-15, 25-17, 23-25 and 25-20) by the UIW Cardinals Saturday afternoon at the McDermott Center in San Antonio.
The Demons (9-8, 1-1 Southland) took a while to get going in the second match of a Texas road swing that began with a 3-1 win Thursday night at Houston Christian. The Cardinals (4-7, 2-0 SLC) took the first two games and fought off an NSU rally in the second half of the match.
“We are learning,” said NSU coach Ben Kaszeta. “First game was tough. They played really well and took us out of the system well. We battled hard against a really tough program. As we continue to improve, we will learn how to battle through against tougher teams. We did that in set three.”
The Demons play their conference home opener Thursday night against the Southeastern Lions (4-11, 1-1 Southland) at 6:30 p.m.
TENNIS: Nico Tagami’s second singles win of the weekend highlighted the Northwestern State tennis team’s final day of competition at the Rice Invitational in Houston on Sunday. Tagami grabbed her second straight-set victory, downing Sam Houston’s Emma Nordin, 7-5, 6-3 in the final match of the round-robin Flight 8 singles draw at the George R. Brown Tennis Center.
Tagami finished the weekend 2-1 in the draw with wins against a pair of Sam Houston opponents.
“It was a well-run tournament with a lot of good teams,” fourth-year head coach Marcos Morelli said. “It exposed us in some areas, so we are coming back to Natchitoches with a lot of things to work on.”
CROSS COUNTRY: Abby Poche and Andrew Kent led the way for Northwestern State, finishing 22nd and 33rd, respectively, in their races at the Cowboy Stampede on Saturday morning at the Enos Derbonne Sports Complex in Lake Charles.
“I am extremely proud of the kids today,” head coach Alex Wills said. “Abby Poche started things off running 18:43 for 5K when her PR for the 3-mile was only 20:14 was huge. I saw lots of improvements today in both returns like Kaden Elliott and then Owen Rowe starting to come back healthy.
“Then the freshmen like Andie Woodhead and Jack Pattillo are showing that they are putting in the work training and it’s paying off. I’m really excited to see what these next two weeks of training will be able to do for this group.”
The teams don’t compete again until mid-October.