Las Vegas, Nev. - The SUU soccer team picked up its first win of the young season on Sunday afternoon, with a 3–1 victory against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at the UNLV Tournament.

SUU head coach Becky Hogan said the team implemented some changes from their match on Friday that paid off.

“We have a very talented, smart, and competitive team who is on a mission to do special things this season,” she said. “I'm constantly impressed with their ability to tweak their game and elevate their play.”

After a scoreless first half, the first goal of the match came in the 55th minute as SUU forward Ally Thimsen put a penalty kick in the back of the net.

The Islanders tied up the match in the 66th minute, as junior forward Hailey Sutton pushed one past SUU goalie Taylor Bolding making the score 1–1.

The Thunderbirds re-took the lead in the 78th minute when forward Paige Robins scored her second goal of the season, and put SUU up 2–1.

In the 87th minute SUU capped the game with Thimsen scoring her second goal of the match, with the assist coming from Robins, giving the T-Birds a 3–1 win.   

After her first two collegiate matches, Robins has five points scoring two goals and getting an assist.

The victory makes SUU's record 1–1 for the season, after falling in a close match to North Texas on Friday. The Islanders fall to 0–2 in the early season, after losing to UNLV on Friday 1–0.  

Bolding played all 90 minutes for SUU and finished with two saves and one goal given up. TA&M-CC goalie Megan Delaney finished with seven saves and the three goals given up.

Next up for the Thunderbirds will be a road trip to California, where they will play Cal State-Northridge on Friday and UC Riverside on Sunday.

“Next weekend will be an even bigger challenge versus two talented, physical, organized and highly skilled California teams,” Hogan said about the road trip. “We need to stay focused this week amid the distraction of school starting and the buzz that surrounds campus. While we embrace that energy and all of our new friends joining us in Cedar, we have a mission and must remain focused on the task at hand.”