The defending Southland Conference champion and league-leading Northwestern State soccer team plays its third league game tonight in San Antonio, while the Demons volleyball team aims to rebound at home Saturday after a 3-2 homecourt loss Thursday night.
The Lady Demon tennis team also competes in Texas this weekend.
SOCCER: Northwestern brings a five-game winning streak to San Antonio tonight, led by a high-powered offense that has scored 39 goals in those five games.
NSU (5-5, 2-0) takes that red-hot offense into a conference showdown on the road against UIW (5-5-2, 2-1) at Gayle & Tom Benson Stadium.
Moved due to projected weather Thursday, the game kicks off today at 6 p.m. and can be viewed on ESPN+.
“UIW is another really good team,” head coach Ian Brophy said. “It is a tough place to go play, so we know we are in for a tough one, and we have to approach the game the right way and do the right things and work hard. If we don’t do those things, we’ll get punched in the mouth, so we need to do all the little things right so we can hopefully we can get out of there with three points.”
The Demons have scored multiple goals in five straight; the first time they can say that since the final five games of the 2022 season.
VOLLEYBALL: Northwestern lost for only the third time in its last 11 contests Thursday night, edged by the Southeastern Louisiana Lions in five sets (25-19, 21-25, 20-25, 25-18 and 15-8) at Prather Coliseum in the first of four straight Southland Conference home matches.
The Demons (9-9, 1-2 SLC) were edged by the visiting Lions (5-11, 2-1 SLC) after failing to hold a 2-1 lead, dropping the last two sets.
“We have to learn how to push through when things get tough,” said Demon head coach Ben Kaszeta. “That’s a well-seasoned team over there in Southeastern with a bunch of seniors. We just have to learn how to score in tough situations and how to take a punch. They came out in set 1 and set 5 and just ran us over. So, we have to learn to punch back when it gets like that.”
The Demons will host LSU-New Orleans (2-14, 0-3 SLC) Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Prather Coliseum. LSU-NO was defeated earlier Thursday by East Texas A&M (8-8, 2-1 SLC) in four sets.
“They are a Division I program with Division I athletes,” said Kaszeta. “I don’t care what their record says, they beat us badly at their place last year, so we need to be ready to come out Saturday and play.”
TENNIS: Northwestern heads to San Marcos, Texas, for its third tournament of the fall season, searching for a level of consistency.
The Lady Demons are taking part this weekend the River State Shoot-Out, hosted by Texas State, for three days of competition beginning this morning.
“(Last weekend at Rice) showed us that the good teams and the good players compete all the time, regardless of the score, regardless of the environment” fourth-year head coach Marcos Morelli said. “Our players realized that some matches didn’t go their way, because mentally they went away in a couple of games. Those are things we have to get better at.”