By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's tennis team capped off a perfect weekend Sunday afternoon, dealing Loras a 7-2 nonconference setback at the Winona Tennis Center.
 
"This was a great way to go into our mini-break," said Saint Mary's coach Jeff Halberg, whose team kicked off the weekend with a 5-4 victory over Macalester on Friday. "The ladies don't compete for a couple of weeks now and we can heal some of the aches and pains and get ready to focus on the next half of the season."
 
The Cardinals took control early, sweeping the three doubles matches. Colleen Lois (Green Bay, Wis.)/Cassandra Barr (Eau Claire, Wis.) teamed for an 8-2 win at No. 1, with Kennedy Morgan (Green Bay, Wis.)/Kailee Johnson (Rochester, Minn.) adding an 8-0 win at No. 2 and Zoie Becker (St. James, Minn.)/Maddie Dosser (South St. Paul, Minn.) delivered an 8-4 win at No. 3.
 
Lois, Barr, Johnson and Becker completed the win with straight-set victories in the top four singles slots — with all four posting a 6-0 win in at least one set. The Cardinals' two singles losses both came in a third-set tiebreaker — Emily Strezishar (East Grand Forks, Minn.) dropped a 6-0, 4-6, 13-11 decision at No. 5, while Dosser fell 0-6, 7-5, 10-8 at No. 6.
 
The Cardinals (6-2 overall) are now off until March 14-15, when they take on St. Catherine and Concordia in a pair of road conference matches. Saint Mary's will face St. Kate's at 11 a.m. on March 14 at the U of M Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis, Minn., before heading to Courts Plus in Fargo, N.D., for a 9 a.m. matchup against Concordia.