• FOR THE RECORD: The Cardinals come into Saturday's conference showdown against Bethel on the heels of a 2-1 conference loss to No. 17 St. Olaf on Wednesday. The loss dropped the Cardinals to 3-10-0 overall, and left SMU still searching for its first conference win.
• TOUGH STRETCH: Wednesday's game against nationally St. Olaf was the second straight against a team sitting atop the MIAC standings. The Oles and Augsburg — which beat Saint Mary's 2-1 last Saturday — are tied for the league lead.
• ONE-GOAL NAILBITERS: Eight of the Cardinals' last 10 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), Augsburg (2-1), and St. Olaf (2-1).
• BACK HOME AGAIN: Saturday's game against Bethel is the second of back-to-back home games for the Cardinals, who have posted two of their three wins this season on their home turf. SMU is 2-4-0 at home, while going 1-6-0 away from Ochrymowycz Field.
• OFFENSIVE LEADERS: Eli Szymanski (La Crosse, Wis.) scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season in the Cardinals' 2-1 loss to St. Olaf on Wednesday. Landon Pendleton (Mobile, Ala.) is second on the team in goals with four, while Diego Rivera (Chicago, Ill.) leads the team with two assists and Szymanski boasts a team-leading 15 points. … Syzmanski's seven goals this season give him 21 for his four-year collegiate career, ranking the senior tied for fourth 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 27 shots and also leads the team with 15 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 five saves in Wednesday's 2-1 loss to St. Olaf. Sessler enters Saturday's game vs. Bethel with a 1.90 goals-against-average and a .784 save percentage. … Sessler owns 76 saves in 11 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. The sophomore also finished with double digits in saves against Concordia on Oct. 2, stopping 10 of the 12 Cobber shots he faced.
• 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 10 of its 16 goals this season after halftime. On the flip side, the Cardinals' opponents have netted 15 of their 22 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: Bethel heads into Saturday's road showdown with Saint Mary's sitting a 7-5-1 overall — while dropping to 1-4-1 in conference play with Thursday's 2-1, double-overtime loss to Saint John's.
• SLUMPING IN: The Royals' two-overtime loss to Saint John's on Thursday was their third straight setback, having also dropped a 3-1 decision to Viterbo and a 2-0 loss against Carleton. After opening the season 6-1-1 — including a season-opening four-game winning streak — BU is just 1-4-0 in its last five contests and have been outscored 10-5 in that five-game stretch.
• HOME SWEET HOME: Thursday's 2-1, 2 OT loss to Saint John's was just the second home loss of the season for the Royals, who sport a 5-2-1 record on their home turf, while going 2-3-0 away from Ona Orth Athletic Complex.
• LEADING THE CHARGE: Matthias Caspari enters Saturday's contest against Bethel owning team-highs in goals (6), points (12), and shots on goal (12).
• SUPPORTING CAST: Jack Hanson, Ben Richburg, and Youssef Abdellah are second to Caspari in goals with three each, while Isaac Howell, Lucas Johnson, Austin Hockmann, and Keegan Mellema have all scored twice. … Braulio Tapia is the team's assist leader with five helpers, two more than Howell and Zach Caouette.
• GAME-WINNER: Hanson and Caspari have each scored a team-best two game-winning goals with Howell, Mellema, and Abdellah accounting for the other three.
• BETWEEN THE PIPES: Colin Hupert has started 11 of the team's 13 games in goal, compiling a 1.45 goals-against-average and .746 save percentage. Hupert has stopped 47 of the 63 shots he's faced and owns a pair of shutouts. … Hupert has made a single-game, season-high six saves four times this season.
• TURNING UP THE HEAT: Bethel has scored three or more goals in five of its seven wins this season, including netting a season-high four goals three times in a five-day span in beating UW-Superior (4-1_, Maranatha Baptist (4-0), and Bethany Lutheran (4-0).
• ON THE FLIP SIDE: The Royals have surrendered three or more goals in three of their five losses — falling to Viterbo and Macalester by 3-1 counts, and allowing a season-high four goals in a 4-1 loss to St. Olaf.
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