Box Score

WINONA, Minn., — Thanks to a late-February snowstorm, it took an additional 19 days for the Saint Mary's University women's tennis team to finally get its match in against St. Catherine.

The Cardinals probably wished Mother Nature had dumped another 12 inches of snow on Winona Friday.

Three, three-set losses will do that to a team.

"This was a match that could have gone either way, no question about that," said SMU coach Jeff Halberg, whose Cardinals came out on the short end of a 5-4 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference decision. "It was a battle from start to finish. Unfortunately, we came out on the short end."

But it wasn't for lack of effort.

Aubrey Hirsch (Topeka, Kan.) and Abby Cooper (La Crosse, Wis.) each dropped the first set of their singles matches at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, only to battle back to force a decisive third game. Each time, however, the Cardinal women came up empty in the third set, as Hirsch lost 10-6, while Cooper was a 10-7 loser. Toni Troumbly (Bovey, Minn.), meanwhile, opened her No. 6 singles match with a 7-6 victory, only to drop the next two sets, 6-3, 10-6.

"We had some great, great matches," said Halberg, noting that Ann Leeder (Greenfield, Wis.) and Ashley Meschke (Pine River, Minn.) were straight-set winners for SMU, while the doubles teams of Leeder-Hirsch and Meschke-Troumbly were winners in doubles. "Aubrey and Abby both battled back after losing the first set — Abby was actually down 1-6, 2-5 and came back to force the third set.

"It's a tough match to lose, but we played with a lot of heart and everyone gave it everything they had."