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Game Summary / GameDay Online

NORTHFIELD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's soccer team entered Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown against St. Olaf riding a season-opening five-game winning streak.

During that five-game run, the Cardinals had outscored their opponents by a combined 25-1 and boasted an 83-11 advantage in shots on goal.

St. Olaf, however, wasn't impressed.

The Oles scored a pair of first-half goals — doubling the offensive output allowed by SMU in its first five games combined — and held off a late second-half charge to beat the Cardinals 2-1.

"St. Olaf is a very good team — there's no doubt in my mind that they'll be one of those teams battling for a (conference tournament) spot at the end of the season," said SMU coach Chris Dembiec. "We definitely weren't on our game, Possession-wise, I think we may have had the upper hand, but we couldn't put anything together.

"It was just a struggle from start to finish."

Jess Magnuson and Karen Thiebes scored two minutes apart early in the first half, as St. Olaf did something no other opponent had been able to do against the Cardinals — force SMU to play catch-up. The Oles held SMU without a shot on goal in the first half, as St. Olaf took its 2-0 advantage into the halftime break.

SMU's offense showed some signs of life in the second half, as Bridgette Baggio (Glenview, Ill.) — who scored the game-winner in the Cardinals' 1-0 overtime victory over St. Catherine on Thursday and has now netted five goals in SMU's last three games — scored on a corner kick with 15 minutes remaining in regulation.

That, however, would be as close as SMU would get.

"The minute (St. Olaf) scored their second goal, it  just deflated us," said Dembiec. "This team isn't used to having to play from behind, and if nothing else, that was a good learning experience for them. We did a nice job of clawing back in the second half — and actually had a couple very good scoring chances after Bridgette's goal, we just couldn't punch that second goal in."

Marianna Sanchez (Puebla, Mexico) — who entered the game having not given up a goal in nearly 274 minutes — finished with six saves, while Sickbert stopped three of SMU's four shots in goal for St. Olaf.

The Cardinals return to action Friday, playing host to Hamline in a conference game scheduled for 3:30 p.m.