Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — If Tony Guinn had his way, Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference finale against St. Catherine would have been a final tune-up before the opening round of the MIAC tournament.

Unfortunately for Guinn and the Cardinals, a late-season two-game losing streak dashed any hopes SMU may have had of playing past Saturday's game vs. the Wildcats.

So the Cardinals did the next best thing — they sent their seniors out on a winning note, and laid the foundation for the upcoming 2006 season.

Lisa Tlougan (Rochester, Minn.) scored her team-leading sixth goal late in the first half and Jennifer Johnson (Racine, Wis.) stopped all four shots she faced for her ninth shutout of the season, as the Cardinals beat St. Catherine 1-0 at Ochrymowycz Field.

"It would have been nice to be able to keep playing, but it just wasn't in the cards for us," said Guinn, whose team was officially eliminated from post-season consideration with last Wednesday's 2-1 loss to Bethel. "Losing to Bethel was tough — this groups hates to lose, and they took that (loss) pretty hard.

"But instead of hanging their heads, they used it as motivation for (Saturday)."

Which was good for the Cardinals — and bad for the Wildcats.

SMU dominated the first half, outshooting St. Catherine 7-1 in the opening 45 minutes — and notching the game's only goal when Tlougan took a feed from Bridgette Baggio (Glenview, Ill.) and laced a shot that curved into the upper left-hand corner.

"This game turned out to be a classy way for our seniors to end their collegiate careers," said Guinn, who will be without seniors Anne Suddendorf (Excelsior, Minn.), Courtney Gibson (Woodbury, Minn.) and Mandy Downing (Mendota Heights, Minn.) when the 2006 season rolls around. "Those three seniors have meant a lot to this program and we're going to miss them.

"It was nice that we could send them off with a win in their final game."

It was also nice for the Cardinals to head into the off-season on a winning note.

"There's disappointment, but this team has really accomplished a lot this season," said Guinn, whose team closes out its season with a 13-5-0 overall record — the most by a Cardinal team since 1994, when they went 16-3-1 and lost to UC-San Diego in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. "We've been in a lot of very close ball games, and, more often than not, we were able to find a way to win.

"Our goal is to continue to improve every year — we made great strides from last year to this year, and, hopefully, we will be able to continue that trend next season."