• FOR THE RECORD: The Cardinals come into Wednesday's conference showdown against St. Olaf on the heels of a 2-1 conference loss on the road at Augsburg on Saturday. The loss dropped the Cardinals to 3-9-0 overall, and left SMU still searching for its first conference win.
• TOUGH STRETCH: Wednesday's game against St. Olaf is the second straight against a team sitting atop the MIAC standings. The Oles and Augsburg — which beat Saint Mary's X-X on Saturday — are tied for the league lead.
• ONE-GOAL NAILBITERS: Seven of the Cardinals' last nine games have been decided by one goal. SMU has beaten Simpson (1-0), while falling to Carleton (2-1), Saint John's (1-0), UW-Eau Claire (3-2), Gustavus (1-0), Ripon (3-2), and Augsburg (2-1).
• ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Saturday's game at Augsburg was the second of back-to-back road games for the Cardinals, who play their next two games — beginning Wednesday against St. Olaf — on their home turf at Ochrymowycz Field.
• OFFENSIVE LEADERS: With his second-half goal against Ripon on Oct. 5, Eli Szymanski (La Crosse, Wis.) pushed his team lead in goals to six, three more than Landon Pendleton (Mobile, Ala.) — who accounted for Saint Mary's other goal in SMU's 3-2 loss to Ripon. Diego Rivera (Chicago, Ill.), the Cardinals' goal-scorer against Augsburg last Saturday, leads the team with two assists, while Szymanski has the team lead in points with 13. … Syzmanski's five goals this season give him 20 for his four-year collegiate career, ranking the senior sixth all-time
• CAREER FIRSTS: Pendleton, Roberto Bontempi (Santos, Brazil), and Alex Keeler (Antioch, Ill.) all scored their first collegiate goals in the Cardinals' 5-0 win over Martin Luther on Sept. 6. … Pendleton netted a pair of goals vs. the Knights for his first career two-goal game. … Jack Hurley (Homewood, Ill.) scored his first collegiate goal in SMU's 3-1 win over Edgewood on Sept. 4.
• TAKING THE SHOT: Szymanski has attempted a team-high 25 shots and also leads the team with 14 SOG.
• KING OF THE PK: Szymanski scored his fourth penalty kick goal of the season against UW-Eau Claire on Sept. 26. Szymanski scored two of Saint Mary's three goals in its Sept. 4 win over Edgewood — both coming on penalty kicks — while also adding a PK goal against Carleton on Sept. 15. Szymanski has now scored Saint Mary's last eight PK goals.
• BETWEEN THE PIPES: Daniel Sessler (Brookfield, Ill.) finished with seven saves against Augsburg last Saturday, marking the fourth time this season the sophomore has stopped seven shots in a game. … Sessler enters Wednesday's game vs. the Oles with a 1.89 goals-against-average and a .789 save percentage. … Sessler owns 71 saves in 10 starts — tops in the MIAC. … Sessler stopped all four shots he faced against Simpson on Sept. 11 en route to the first shutout of the season and second of his career
• CAREER-HIGH: Sessler posted a career-high 12 saves against UW-Eau Claire on Sept. 26.
• CAREER FIRST, PART II: Jacob Wing (Verona, Wis.) earned his first career win — in his first collegiate start — in the Cardinals' 3-1 win over Edgewood on Sept. 4. Wing made two saves, with the lone goal coming on a penalty kick. … Wing and Connor Petrich (Arden Hills, Minn.) combined on a two-save shutout against Martin Luther on Sept. 6. Wing stopped both shots he faced in 71:38, while Petrich did not face a shot in 18:22 of relief.
• THE END: The Cardinals had their three-game winning streak come to a screeching halt on Sept. 15, as Carleton scored two goals in less than two minutes early in the first half in handing Saint Mary's a 2-1 setback in the teams' conference opener. After opening the season with a 3-0 loss to the University of Dubuque, the Cardinals had answered with wins over Edgewood (3-1), Martin Luther (5-0), and Simpson (1-0).
• STREAKING ALONG: The Cardinals have now put together a three-game winning streak for the second time in three seasons. The last time SMU won four consecutive games was in 2000, when the Cardinals beat Coe (2-1), Central-Iowa (2-0), Loras (2-0), and St. Thomas (1-0).
• NIGHT AND DAY: Saint Mary's has scored nine of its 15 goals this season after halftime. On the flip side, the Cardinals' opponents have netted 13 of their 20 goals in the game's opening 45 minutes.
• CLOSE CALLS: The Cardinals battled Saint John's to a scoreless deadlock through 90 minutes of regulation on Sept. 18, but the Johnnies would score the game's only goal less than three minutes into the first overtime in dealing SMU a 1-0 setback. It was the third time in the last six months that SMU and SJU have played a game decided by one goal or less. The two teams battled to a 0-0 draw on April 21, 2021, with the Cardinals winning the rematch 2-1 four days later.
• OFFENSIVE RESURGENCE: The Cardinals scored as many goals against Martin Luther on Sept. 6 (5) as they had in all five of their games combined a year ago.
• PERFECTION: With their 5-0 win over Martin Luther on Sept. 6, the Cardinals improved to 6-0-0 all-time against the Knights. Saint Mary's has outscored MLC 21-0 in its six meetings. |
• FOR THE RECORD: The Oles enter Wednesday's road game at Saint Mary's sitting tied for the top spot in the MIAC standings with a 5-0-0 record, while also sporting a near-perfect 10-1-1 overall mark.
• ON A ROLL: The Oles' 1-0, double-overtime win over Saint John's last Saturday pushed their
Winning streak to eight straight. St. Olaf has now lost since dropping a 2-1 decision to Colorado College on Sept. 10. The Oles' only other blemish is a 1-1 tie with 15th-ranked University of Chicago on Sept. 12.
• IN THE POLLS: The Oles head into Wednesday's game against Saint Mary's ranked 17th in the latest United Soccer Coaches Top 25. The Oles cracked the Top 25 for the first time since 2015, when they came in at No. 22 on Oct. 5, before moving up five spots this week.
• LEADER OF THE PACK: As a team, the Oles lead the MIAC in goals (41), points (114), and shots (218), while sitting No. 2 in assists (32) and goals-against-average (0.96). Individually, Hakeem Morgan is the league-leader in assists (6), points (20), and shots (49), and is second in goals (7).
• ON THE OFFENSIVE: Morgan and Casey McCloskey share the team lead with seven goals each, one more than Shea Bechtel — who has scored three goals in the team's last two games, including the double-overtime game-winner against Saint John's last Saturday. All told, 15 different Oles have netted at least one goal this season.
• SETTING IT UP: Morgan has recorded a team-high six assists, one more than Bechtel and two in front of Victor Gaulmin.
• POINTED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION; The Oles have four players who have amassed 10 or more points this season — Morgan (20), Bechtel (17), McCloskey (16), and Gaulmin (12).
• GAME-WINNER: McCloskey owns four of the Oles' 10 game-winning goals, followed by Bechtel with three. Morgan, Jordan Oberholtzer, and Thierno Gueye have netted the other three.
• BETWEEN THE PIPES: Austin Williams has started all 12 games in goal for the Oles, compiling a 1.01 goals-against-average and a .739 save percentage. Williams has stopped 34 of the 46 shots he's faced
• PUTTING IN THE OT: Last Saturday's 1-0 win over Saint John's was the Oles fourth overtime game of the season. St. Olaf beat Macalester 3-2 in two overtimes on Sept. 25 and topped Luther 3-2 in overtime three days later, while also tying the University of Chicago 1-1.
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