Southeast Missouri State women's soccer team's seven Wisconsin natives relish opportunity to play in home state

This weekend is bound to be a memorable experience for a group of players on the Southeast Missouri State women's soccer team, which begins a two-game road trip today in Wisconsin, a state that seven of the team's players call home.

In particular, Southeast's three seniors -- Kaitlin Kuznacic, Natasha Minor and Angie Mann -- will get the chance to play in their native state for the first time in their collegiate careers.

"For us, it was recognition of what this senior class has done, and we wanted to give them the opportunity to play back in their home state and area," Redhawks coach Heather Nelson said. "It was really more about them as a thank you to them and to give them a chance to play in front of their fans and their family -- from club coaches to high school coaches, you name it.

"This is really just a good field trip that we felt that they had earned."

Nelson said the recruiting ties all started with Kuznacic, who contacted the coach during her high school days while playing with North Shore United, a non-profit club team based out of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. The club team made its way to St. Louis and was pitted against a squad from the Kansas City area, one that Nelson originally planned to scout.

"I found myself at the game being way more interested in the North Shore United kids and team rather than the Kansas City area team, so I liked Kaitlin, reached out to her after that event and reached out to their coach, who's name is Sinisa [Angelovski]," Nelson said. "I really thought that the way that he coached -- the messages he was giving to his players, how he interacted with them -- would be a very good fit for our program."

After Kuznacic, the rest fell like dominoes. Minor joined the team shortly thereafter, and Mann was added after spending a year and a half at Central Michigan.

Since their arrival, Nelson has continued to initiate a recruiting pipeline in Wisconsin, adding juniors Paige Blankenheim and Shay Darga and freshmen Maria Salm and Jennifer Brien along the way.

Nelson believes the positive experiences from her upperclassmen have been the biggest contributor to the state becoming a hotbed for Southeast's soccer program. She's also established a beneficial relationship with Angelovski and the rest of the North Shore United coaching staff.

"The club or the club coaches have confidence in directing more players," Nelson said. "Actually, it's sort of funny with Sinisa because at that time, you'd hear that SEMO should be North Shore United-SEMO soccer program. And there have been times where I have to agree. We probably could've had a hyphenated name."

For Kuznacic, the opportunity to return home and play in front of friends and family is being met with plenty of excitement.

"It's definitely hard for all our parents to come and see us just because we do live seven hours away," Kuznacic said. "I'm fortunate that my brother's older than me -- I'm the last one in the house -- so my parents have the opportunity to come down to a lot of my games. ... I know, for me, my high school coaches haven't been able to watch me play in four years, so I'm really excited that I get to see them again. They kind of get to see how I grew in four years as a player, and I think a lot of the other girls are really excited about that, too.

"We all have a lot of people coming."

Southeast (2-0) will get things started at 7 p.m. today against Wisconsin-Green Bay (0-1-1) at Aldo Santaga Stadium in Green Bay, Wisonsin, a city that Minor calls home, before travelling south to take on Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2-0) at noon Sunday.

"Obviously some of their teammates, whether from club or high school, a number of them play for UW-Milwaukee, so that game in particular is going to be like going back to high school days and high school rivalries and club rivalries," Nelson said. "That's definitely going to be a match that has a lot of emotion to it, which should be wonderful for us. They're a very good program, so we're looking forward to that game."

The Redhawks are off to their sixth 2-0 start in program history after debuting with a pair of impressive victories, including a 1-0 road win over Southeastern Conference opponent Tennessee in the season opener.

"I feel like everyone on the team, even if they're playing or not, they have a really good attitude and want what's best for the other players, which just makes it a really good environment," Kuznacic said. "Everyone's pushing each other, and everyone's playing.

"We've basically had everyone off the bench. I don't think there's anyone that's sat out, and that's extremely unique that we've been able to play the entire bench, especially against an SEC school. ... It just shows you how much depth we have that we were able to do that and still win a big game like that."