CONWAY, Ark. - With an 11-game winning streak, a Southland Conference tournament title, and a trip to the Big Dance on the line, Lamar University will return to the pitch Sunday in the Southland Conference Championship game. They'll face the one SLC team that managed to beat them in the regular season - Northwestern State.

Lamar vs. Northwestern State - SLC Championship Game - Sunday, Nov. 10 at 1:05 p.m. - Bill Stephens Track & Soccer Complex (Conway, Ark.)

Though Lamar holds a distinct 7-4-2 advantage over Northwestern State in the all-time series, recent meetings between the two teams have been extremely close. LU and NSU have split the past four meetings, and each of those games has been decided by just one goal. Most recently Northwestern State won earlier this season in a 2-1 decision in Natchitoches, La.

Northwestern State qualified for the SLC tournament as the #2 seed with an 8-2-1 mark in SLC play, winning the tiebreaker with Abilene Christian as the only team to beat LU in the regular season. The Demons defeated #7 Sam Houston State by a score of 3-0 in the opening round and survived a golden goal scenario against McNeese in the semi-final with a 1-0 win. In conference play the Demons 1.5 goals a game while surrendering just over half a goal a game, and has shutout SLC opponents six times in 2019 including both tournament games.

Northwestern State sophomore Nicole Henry earned SLC Defender of the Year recognition in the league's postseason awards, using her speed to anchor a Demons back line that held opponents to just over eight shots per game in Southland matches. She limited quality chances as well with just about half of those shots going on goal. Olivia Mattson joined Henry on the ALL-SLC First Team, and defender Hallie Field and forward Jalen Donaldson earned Third Team honors.

The Last Time Out

Lamar University's soccer team punched their way to Sunday's Southland Conference Championship game following a 5-1 triumph in Friday evening's semi-final matchup against fifth seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

"We had another solid performance tonight and we were efficient with our goal scoring," said head coach Steve Holeman. "I thought we moved the ball well and did a nice job on our set pieces. It's great to be back in the final and we know this will be our biggest challenge of the season."