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WINONA, Minn. — On Sunday, the Saint Mary's University women's soccer team saw its 23-game nonconference winning streak come to a screeching halt with a 2-1 loss to UW-Stout.
Wednesday afternoon, SMU saw two other streaks fall by the wayside — only this time, they were in the Cardinals' favor.
Amy Sibik (Onalaska, Wis.) and
Bridgette Baggio (Glenview, Ill.) scored first-half goals four minutes apart as the Cardinals knocked off the Tommies 2-1 — ending a seven-year winless drought vs. UST, while also snapping their current four-game losing streak.
"This is a great win," understated SMU coach Chris Dembiec, whose team had not beaten St. Thomas since a 1-0 overtime win in 1999 — and had been outscored 21-4 during the 0-6-1 seven-year run. "Not only because it had been so long since we had beaten them — I didn't even really know about that, which is probably a good thiing — but because we put together a solid, overall performance and were then rewarded for our efforts."
The Cardinals have relied on their two sharpshooters — Sibik and Baggio — all season, and Wednesday was no different.
Sibik netted her team-leading 12th goal of the season in the game's 16th minute, and Baggio tallied her 11th of the year four minutes later to give the Cardinals a commanding 2-0 cushion heading into halftime.
"We struggled a little bit in the second half, (St. Thomas) really started to press on the offensive end and it got a little hairy — especially after they scored," said Dembiec, whose team held its 2-0 advantage until the 77:41 mark, when Lexie Fisher banged home a rebound off a shot by Erin Sprangers to make it a one-goal game.
That, however, was as close as the Tommies would get, as SMU held UST at bay over the final 12:19 to ice the streak-snapping victory.
"It feels good," Dembiec said. "We've had a lot of highs and lows this season — and this certainly has to rank right up there with the highest of the highs."