ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — The drought is over — and the Saint Mary's University women's soccer team is back on the winning track.
After 260:00 minutes without a goal, Cardinals finally found the back of the net Saturday against Bethel — twice.
And they needed both of them.
Saint Mary's scored single goals in both the first and second halves — the first by
Lauryn Skoruppa (Littleton, Colo.) and the second by
Brooklyn McKinney (Thornton, Colo.) — en route to a 2-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over Bethel at Ona Orth Athletic Complex.
Skoruppa broke the ice for the Cardinals — who had not scored since the 33rd minute of a 1-0 victory over UW-Stout on Oct. 5 — netting her team-leading third goal of the season in the … 33rd minute … to give Saint Mary's a 1-0 advantage.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, the Cardinals' lead expanded to 2-0, as McKinney tallied her second of the season — taking a feed from
Dakota Leonard (Lincolnshire, Ill.) and rifling a shot past BU goalkeeper Kate Green.
The two-goal advantage did not last long, however, as Bethel's Malia Beilby beat SMU goalkeeper
Alexis Nguyen (West Corvina, Calif.) just five minutes after McKinney's tally to cut the Cardinals' lead in half at 2-1.
That would be as close as the Royals would get, as Nguyen — who finished with five saves — and the Cardinal defense would smother any BU opportunity en route to the victory.
The Cardinals (3-3-2 MIAC, 6-5-2 overall) — who improved to 4-1-2 in their last seven contests with the win — step out of MIAC play for the first of two straight nonconference road contests, heading to Stevens Point, Wis., on Sunday for a 2 p.m. showdown against UW-Stevens Point.
