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Summary vs. UW-Superior / GameDay Online / Photo Gallery

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's soccer team rang in a new era with an old-school performance Friday afternoon against UW-Superior.

Playing on their new home artificial turf for the first time, the Cardinals relied on a pair of "old-timers" — senior Melissa Paulson (Ham Lake, Minn.) and sophomore Amy Sibik (Onalaska, Wis.) to carry the load in leading SMU to a 3-0 nonconference victory over the Yellowjackets.

"Everyone was really pumped up to play at home on the new turf," said SMU first-year coach Eric Zimmerman, whose Cardinals opened the season with 2-1 and 9-0 road wins over UM-Morris and Presentation, respecitlvely. "And I think that kind of worked against us a bit in the first half — we were almost to hyped up.

"But I thought we settled down a bit in the second half and played much more like we are capable of playing."

Fittingly, it was Paulson, a four-year starter for the Cardinals, who got SMU on the board first, netting her second goal of the season 16 minutes into the first half. Sibik netted the first of her two goals just before halftime, then hooked up with Paulson 11 minutes into the second half to give the Cardinals a commanding lead.

"It was fitting for Paulson to score the first goal on the new field," said Zimmerman, who got his first collegiate coaching win vs. UM-Morris, and his first collegiate home win Friday. "I'm happy with the win, and especially with the way we played in the second half — but we've still got a ways to go.

"The road's going to continue to get tougher and tougher, and we've got to make sure we are playing at the top of our game all the time."