By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
FARGO, N.D. — Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's tennis coach Jeff Halberg could not have asked more of his team Sunday afternoon in the Cardinals' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against Concordia.
 
Except, maybe, for a win for their efforts.
 
The Cardinals turned in what Halberg termed, "one of their best performances of the season," but had nothing to show for their efforts, as the Cobbers dealt Saint Mary's a 9-0 setback at Courts Plus.
 
"I have never been associated with a match where we put in so much effort and played so well—and got nothing for it," Halberg said. "Give credit to Concordia, they played very well under pressure.
 
"We put up an excellent battle today."
 
The Cobbers outlasted Saint Mary's in all three doubles matches, winning 8-5 at No. 1, 8-6 at No. 2, and 8-4 at No. 3.
 
And it was more of the same in singles.
 
The Cardinals' Brenden Amiotte (Rapid City, S.D.), Bobby Tiedeman (Euclid, Minn.), and Alec Rudh all came up empty in three-set marathons—Amiotte falling 5-3, 5-7, 10-2 at No. 1, while Tiedeman dropped a 4-6, 7-5, 10-5 decision at No. 3, and Rudh fell 5-7, 6-2, 10-3 at No. 5—while Sobczak (Cloquet, Minn.) lost a first-set tie-breaker in suffering a 7-6, 6-3 decision at No. 4.
 
The Cardinals (0-6 MIAC, 4-9 overall) have a busy weekend on tap, as Saint Mary's entertains Saint John's in a 6 p.m. MIAC matchup at the Winona Tennis Center on Friday. The Cardinals then travel to Appleton, Wis., to take on Lawrence at 7 p.m. on Saturday, before closing out the weekend with a 9 a.m. matchup against St. Norbert in DePere, Wis., the following day.