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WINONA, Minn. — Just when Saint Mary's University women's soccer coach Neil Cassidy thought his team's offense had hit its stride, the Cardinals' ran into a brick wall in the form of St. Thomas Wednesday evening.

Just three days after the Cardinals erupted for three goals in a 3-1 win over Marian, SMU could not solve the Tommies' defense, as UST handed Saint Mary's a 2-0 setback in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener at Ochrymowycz Field.

Despite the loss, Cardinals coach Neil Cassidy found plenty of positives from his young squad.

“We're making leaps and bounds,” Cassidy said. “The team we just played has played three top 25 teams in the nation, and they've won two out of those three. I think, based on that performance, we played really well.

“We've got to be proud of it. As a group I think we're proud of how we dug deep, we're proud of how we possessed the ball. We know what we can do now, and that's the important thing.”

For St. Thomas coach Sheila (Hannon '97) McGill, coming to Saint Mary's was more than just another game, it was a chance to visit her alma mater.

“To come back and coach, obviously you want to do well at your alma mater,” said McGill, a four-year letterwinner during her playing days at Saint Mary's. “So it's fun to come back and expect that of the players — and they definitely stepped up today, so that was great.”

The Tommies opened the scoring in the game's 11th minute, as Katy Scherer took a feed from Anna Strehlow and beat SMU goalkeeper Cassie Hulett (Milwaukee, Wis.). Strehlow set up UST's second goal 22 minutes later, as she fed Jenna Savino, who beat Hulett to give the Tommies a commanding 2-0 lead head into halftime.

The UST defense smothered the Cardinals in the second half, holding SMU without a shot on goal over the game's final 45 minutes en route to the win.

Hulett finished with three saves in goal for SMU, while Callan Faulkner and Tori Shepard combined on a two-save shutout for the Tommies.

“The goals we gave up were not on open plays,” Cassidy said. “They didn't have any clear opportunities. This team is ranked 21st in the nation —for them not to have any clear-cut opportunities says a lot about the way our team performed.”

The Cardinals, who fall to 0-1-0 in the MIAC and 1-4-0 overall, are back in action on Saturday, traveling to Northfield, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference showdown against St. Olaf.

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