CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The Southeast Missouri women's soccer team improved to 2-0 on the season with a 3-1 victory over Illinois Springfield in Sunday evening's home opener.
 
A total of 1,137 fans set a new Houck Stadium women's soccer attendance record Sunday evening. The previous record was 841. It was set September 11, 2012 against Evansville. 
 
Heather Nelson remarked on the crowd: "I'd like to thank everyone who came out to watch us play tonight. We want to do everything we can to make this institution proud of us. We would love to see everyone back in the stands every game because ours fans make a difference in how we perform. When we talked at halftime, we discussed we didn't want to disappoint a thousand people and wanted our program represented to the best of our ability. I hope our fans are hungry to come back for more!"
 
Sunday's game acted as an exhibition match for Illinois Springfield.
 
Southeast's three goals were scored by Natasha Minor, Lauren Kaempfe, and freshman Cassidi Tomsu.  
 
The Redhawks outshot the Prairie Stars 17-5 and put 10 shots on goal. While UIS only had five shots, four were on goal.
 
Kindra Lierz (2-0) picked up the victory in goal for SEMO. She played the full 90 minutes and allowed her first goal of the season. Lierz added three saves in the match. Her 21 wins in goal moves her into fourth all-time in wins at Southeast. She has also moved into fourth all-time with her 160 career saves.
 
Courtney Johnson suffered the loss. Johnson allowed three goals in 90 minutes. Despite giving up three goals, she had seven saves against the Redhawks.
 
UIS' Karisa Rogers found the back of the net following a rebound in a gaggle of players in the 13^th minute to put the Prairie Stars ahead 1-0.
 
The Redhawks found themselves down 1-0 at halftime despite leading in shots 8-3. Southeast had three corner kick opportunities while UIS didn't have any in the first half.
 
"I thought our possession was fairly good in the first half but we were playing a little fatigued and tired from playing Friday and a long day of travel yesterday. It was a good challenge for us to be down a goal; our character really showed through. The staff stressed at halftime that we needed our players to stay the course and get the ball to move a little quicker between us.
 
"UIS did a very good job of getting numbers behind the ball when we took any extra touches. They made us work tonight and I think they're going to have a very good season."
 
Minor scored the equalizer in the 54^th minute. Alexis Hacker tried her shot at a goal but the deflection came back to Minor who dropped it in and even up the score, 1-1. The goal was Minor's 17^th in her career while it was Hacker's first career assist.
 
In the 75^th minute, Kaempfe scored the go-ahead goal when she narrowly got one past Johnson with an assist by Minor. It was the sophomore's third career goal while Minor picked up her 12^th career assist.
 
One minute and 17 seconds later, Tomsu used a rebound by Katie Lever to score her first career goal, widening the lead to 3-1 for the Redhawks.
 
Minor finished the match with one goal, an assist, and five shots, putting two on goal. Both of Tomsu's shots were one goal while three other Redhawks each had two shots apiece.
 
Rogers led the Prairie Stars with two shots to accompany her goal.
 
In all, Southeast had six corner kicks while UIS didn't have any. The Redhawks were called on eight fouls and Illinois Springfield had five. SEMO was also called offsides seven times in the game.
 
The Redhawks will open a three-game road swing beginning with two games in Wisconsin this week. SEMO plays at Green Bay Thursday at 7 p.m. then play at Milwaukee on Sunday at noon.