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Game Summary vs. St. Thomas / GameDay Online

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but Mother Nature's wrath — in the form of heavy, early-October rain — forced the game to be postponed to Thursday.

After watching his team's performance against St. Thomas, Saint Mary's University women's soccer coach Eric Zimmerman probably wished Mother Nature would have made another appearance on Thursday.

At least for 70 seconds in the game's final 20 minutes.

The Tommies entered Thursday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against SMU unbeaten in seven conference games, while the Cardinals were still looking for their first MIAC win.

And, unfortunately for the Cardinals, both teams left the field with their conference streaks in tact, as St. Thomas scored twice in a 70-second span late in the second half en route to a 2-0 MIAC win over SMU.

“We played very well,” said SMU coach Eric Zimmerman, whose team suffered its third straight shutout loss — and sixth shutout loss of the season. “We made two defensive miscues, and (St. Thomas) scored on both of them.

“They are a very good team — the best team we've faced this season,” said Zimmerman of St. Thomas, which improved to a conference-best 6-0-2 and is 9-0-3 overall. “I thought we did a great job of hanging right with them. We just made those two mistakes, and that was the difference.”

After a scoreless first 77 minutes, Hannah Gikling scored the first of her two goals at 77:20, then followed that up with her second of the season 70 seconds later, heading a Stephanie Paasch pass past SMU goalkepeer Mariana Sanchez (Puebla, Mexico).

Sanchez finished with eight saves, while the Cardinals managed just one shot on UST goalkeeper Amanda Domeier.

"It's a tough loss, because we hung right with them right ot the end," said Zimmerman, whose team is back in conference play Saturday, playing host to Macalester in a 1 p.m. game at Ochrymowycz Field. "Hopefully we can put this one behind us and be ready for (Macalester)."