EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Saint Mary's University women's tennis coach Jeff Halberg knew his team was in for a battle when they took the court for the final time ever against St. Thomas Sunday afternoon.
 
And, unfortunately for Halberg and the Cardinals, the Tommies were as good as advertised.
 
The Tommies — who are leaving the MIAC after this season — dropped just five games in the three doubles matches and added five straight-set singles wins in dealing the Cardinals an 8-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at Life Time Athletic.
 
"We put up a good battle against a very deep St. Thomas team," said Halberg. "Sarrianna played an outstanding match at No. 6 singles and came away with a hard-fought win."
 
Sarrianna Hoffer (Wausau, Wis.) collected the Cardinals' lone win against the high-powered Tommies, outlasting UST's Sarah Gustafson 7-6 (4), 6-1 at No. 6. St. Thomas dropped just 13 games in the other five singles matches in posting five straight-set wins.
 
The Tommies headed to the six singles matches on the heels of convincing doubles victories — sandwiching 8-2 wins at No. 1 and No. 3 around an 8-1 victory at No. 2.
 
The Cardinals (1-3 MIAC, 4-4 overall) — who played three matches in the last three days — are now off until April 2, when they play host to Northwestern in a nonconference match at the Winona Tennis Center. First serve is set for noon.