Sept. 1, 2004

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - After recording wins over Arkansas of the Southeastern Conference and Evansville of the Missouri Valley Conference, the Southeast Missouri State University women's soccer team will host Illinois of the Big 10 Conference and Xavier of the Atlantic 10.

Illinois, ranked 14th nationally, will be at Houck Stadium on Friday at 7 p.m. and Xavier will be at Houck on Sunday at 2 p.m.

"This is a great opportunity for our team to compete against one of the top teams in the nation in Illinois and a very solid team in Xavier," said Southeast coach Heather Nelson. "Our seniors have had good success playing against nationally ranked teams and I know they are looking forward to the Illinois game. When our seniors were sophomores, they beat a nationally ranked Kentucky team and last year they played a ranked Auburn team very tough before losing 2-0."

Illinois is 1-0 on the season and fresh off a 4-1 win over Missouri last Sunday.

Southeast is 2-0 and boasts the Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Week, junior Lisa Schweppe. She had the game winning goal against Arkansas and assisted on the only goal scored in the win over Evansville.

"I am excited that Lisa is getting the recognition she deserves," Nelson said. "Everything is really coming together for her and she will only continue to get better. She is a very threatening forward and that really helps us as a team."

Xavier is 0-2 after losing to Butler and Loyola of Chicago.