Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. — For the Saint Mary's University women's tennis team, it was fun while it lasted.

The Cardinals' four-match winning streak — and sophomore Val Meschke's (Pine River, Minn.) eight-match unbeaten string — both came to a screeching halt Sunday, as SMU ran into high-powered St. Thomas.

Meschke — who not only entered Sunday's match having won eight straight, but also boasted an impressive 14-1 singles record — was no match for the Tommies' Dana Vilar at No. 3 singles, falling 6-1, 6-4.

And as Meschke went, so went the rest of the Cardinals, as St. Thomas swept all six singles matches, and rolled through the three doubles matches en route to a 9-0 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.

Things didn't go much better for the SMU men, either, as the Cardinals managed just one victory — an 8-4 triumph at No. 2 doubles — in falling to the Tommies 8-1.

"It was a tough day for us — not that we played poorly, because I thought both teams played very well — it was just that we ran into a tough, tough St. Thomas team," said SMU coach Jeff Halberg, whose women's team had posted back-to-back 8-1 wins over UW-Stout and Wisconsin Lutheran on Saturday to extend their winning streak to three, while the Cardinal men routed Buena Vista 9-0, before falling to Central-Iowa by an 8-1 score on Saturday. "Three matches in two days is tough, but the biggest difference (between Saturday and Sunday) was (St. Thomas') depth — they were just too much for us."

The Cardinal men's doubles team of Adam Solseth (Shakopee, Minn.) and Steve Clements (La Crosse, Minn.) picked up SMU's lone win of the day, posting an 8-4 win at No. 2 doubles, while Brittney Nielsen (Apple Valley, Minn.) was the only SMU woman to force a third set, falling to UST's Brittany Bachman 6-1, 2-6, 10-4.

"The men's score was closer than it looked," said Halberg, noting that both Steve Grundhoefer (St. Paul, Minn.) and Solseth rallied from one set down, only to fall in three sets at No. 2 and No. 3; singles, respectively. "Who knows? We get a break here or there and it could have been a whole different outcome.

"It would have been nice for the final scores to be a little closer, but overall, I was very pleased with our performances. St. Thomas is a tough team, and I felt like we gave them a pretty good run for their money."