vs.
1		3

Game Summary / GameDay Online

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University and Saint Benedict women's soccer teams headed into Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game stuck in similar predicaments.

After opening the season with five straight wins, and victories in seven of their first eight, the Cardinals came into Saturday's game with just two wins in their last six — including back-to-back losses to Carleton (4-0) and Macalester (2-0) in their two most recent games.

Saint Benedict, meanwhile, raced out to a perfect 12-0 start to the season, but the Blazers have since lost three straight.

And in a span of less than a minute, one of those losing streaks came to a screeching halt.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, it wasn't theirs.

The Blazers Alison Tourville scored back-to-back goals 59 seconds apart early in the second half to carry CSB to a 3-1 victory over the Cardinals — sending SMU to its season-high third straight loss.

"Saint Benedict is a very talented team — they have the ability to strike quickly, and they proved that in the second half," said SMU coach Chris Dembiec, whose Cardinals have been outscored 9-1 during their current three-game slide. "I thought we came out a little flat in the first half, but seemed to come alive a bit in the second. Once (Tourville) scored that first score, that took away any momentum we may have gained, and then her second goal just completely deflated us."

The Blazers' Kate Shaughnessy netted the lone goal of the first half, beating SMU goalkeeper Marianna Sanchez (Puebla, Mexico) with a shot off a CSB corner kick.

The Cardinals would tie things up four minutes into the second  half, as Bridgette Baggio (Glenview, Ill.) ended a six-game goalless drought with her team-leading 10th goal of the season on a penalty kick. The deadlock was short-lived, however, as Tourville iced things for the Blazers two minutes later with the first of her two goals.

"It's a tough loss, just in that I thought the effort was there — take away that one-minute stretch, and it's a 1-1 game," said Dembiec, whose team fell to 3-6-0 in the MIAC and 9-6-0 overall with their fifth road loss of the season. "But that's been the difference between wins and losses for us all season — a letdown here, a letdown there. Against teams like (Saint Benedict), you can't afford those kinds of letdowns."