Game Summary

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — In two days, the Saint Mary's University women's soccer team will face its toughest challenge of the season.

Yet, if Tony Guinn had any concerns that his Cardinals would look past Thursday's nonconference game against Alverno and look ahead to Saturday's showdown vs. unbeaten and nationally ranked Macalester, they were unwarranted.

The Cardinals were focused on one thing Thursday afternoon — win No. 7.

And SMU got the victory in convincing fashion, as the Cardinals scored four times in each half en route to an 8-0 nonconference win.

"This was a great way for us to head into the Macalester game," said Guinn, whose team improved to 7-1-0 overall with the win. "Everyone on this team knows how big a game we have (on Saturday), but they all stayed focused on this game and played very well.

"Our schedule has had us playing a lot of games in a short amount of time — but we've managed to win seven of those eight games, so that's certainly something to be happy about."

As is the fact that the Cardinals' offense returned to its high-octane form — getting a pair of goals from Melisa Entinger (Mound, Minn.) and Bridget Baggio (Glenview, Ill.) en route to their season-high nine-goal offensive output.

"This was a nice final tune-up for the Macalester game,' said Guinn, who got first-half goals from Emily Berg (Owatonna, Minn.,), Entinger, Melissa Paulson (Ham Lake, Minn.) and Emily Duffey (Richfield, Minn.), while Baggio, Entinger, Mariana Sanchez (Puebla, Mexico) and Jamison McClure (White Bear Lake, Minn.) netted second-half tallies. "We have a lot of respect (for the Scots), and we know it's going to be a great challenge for us.

"(Macalester) is a very good team — but I think we are a good team, too. Hopefully we can pick up right where we left off (against Alverno)."