McNeese State's women's soccer team (8-9-2, 4-4-0 SLC) enters their tenth Southland Conference Tournament today when the sixth seed Cowgirls face third seed Stephen F. Austin (9-8-1, 6-2-1 SLC) at 4:30 p.m. in Natchitoches on the campus of Northwestern State in the opening game of the tournament.

The Cowgirls earned their tournament spot with a 1-0 season finale win over Nicholls State Sunday. The sixth seed may be a lucky seed for the Cowgirls, at least it was in 2006 when the Cowgirls were the sixth seed that year. It turned out that McNeese went on to upset Texas State 1-0 in the finals, UTSA 1-0 in the semifinals and a stunning 3-2 overtime upset over Stephen F. Austin in the first round.  The Cowgirls won the tournament giving McNeese its first and only NCAA Tournament appearance.

Seniors on the team this year (Erin Leighton, Erica Shepard) were freshman and senior Lauren Slater was a sophomore on the 2006 team. It would be an amazing accomplishment for those three young ladies to cap off their career by beginning it with a SLC Tournament Championship and ending it with another one this season. The 2006 and the 2009 rosters are somewhat similar in the fact that both teams were full of underclassmen. The 2006 team had 15 underclassmen and the 2009 team has 17 underclassmen. The only difference is this year's team enters the tournament on a four game winning streak and has outscored their last four opponents 6-1.

No matter what the outcome is following today's game, the Cowgirls certainly earned their way into the tournament. After dropping their first four SLC games, the Cowgirls' offense began to come around and the final results showed that. During the four game winning streak, McNeese picked up five victories via a shutout.

The meeting against Stephen F. Austin today will be the third time the Cowgirls and the  Ladyjacks have faced each other in the SLC Tournament. McNeese has played in the last three Southland Conference Championship games and won it all in 2006.

All tournament games will be streamed live and can be found by logging on to www.southland.org or www.mcneesesports.com