Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — After two weeks of practices and a couple of scrimmages, Saint Mary's University women's soccer coach Dan Blank thought his team was ready for its first official game.

Ninety minutes after the opening kick against UW-Oshkosh on Tuesday, however, and Blank realized just much work the Cardinals still had ahead of them.

The Titans scored six first-half goals — including three in the game's first 14 minutes — in handing Saint Mary's a 9-0 setback.

"No one likes to lose, especially like that," admitted Blank, whose team was out-shot 23-3. "But we have to use this game as a learning experience. It's a long season, and this was just the first game.

"I've said from Day 1 that we have to take this season one day at a time. It's a building process and what we have to do is find the positives and build from them."

Unfortunately, finding those positives won't be all that easy.

UW-Oshkosh totally dominated in the Cardinals, especially in the first half, when the Titans took advantage of SMU's inexperience in playing a zone defense to pepper goalkeeper Dianna Kyllo (Kasson, Minn.) with 13 shots en route to their 6-0 halftime advantage.

"Our system failed us as much as anything," said Blank. "Playing a zone defense is tough enough for an experienced team. But for an inexperienced one like ours, it's that much tougher. (Oshkosh) exploited our weakness in the defensive zone in the first half, it was as simple as that.

"You can't pin all the blame on the system we were playing, because no matter what the system is, you still have to execute, and we certainly didn't do that."