WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's soccer team boasted one of the top defenses in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference ­— and defense was the name of the game for the Cardinals when the conference unveiled its post-season awards.
 
Three Cardinals — goalkeeper Alexis Nguyen (West Covina, Calif.), defender Maya Wachter (Dubuque, Iowa), and midfielder Dakota Leonard (Lincolnshire, Ill.) — were all named Honorable-Mention All-MIAC, the league office announced Thursday.
 
Saint Mary's posted nine shutout wins — not to mention a 0-0 stalemate against Augsburg on Oct. 8 — and did not allow a goal in its last five contests as part of a regular season-ending six-game winning streak.
 
And the trio of Nguyen, Wachter, and Leonard were a main cog in that stellar brick-wall defense.
 
Collecting post-season honors for the second year in a row, Nguyen closed out a storied collegiate career with another stellar season in 2022. The senior goalkeeper started all 11 conference games between the pipes, compiling a 1.05 goals-against-average and .851 save percentage, stopping 63 of the 74 shots she faced. Overall, Nguyen appeared in 18 of the Cardinals' 19 games — including 16 starts — and posted a 0.94 GAA and .839 save percentage with seven shutouts. She closed out the year with 78 saves, including a career-high 12-save effort against St. Catherine on Sept. 24.
 
Nguyen certainly did her part, but she had plenty of help en route to those seven shutouts and microscopic 0.94 goals-against-average.
 
Wachter was one of just three Cardinals to start all 11 MIAC contests — and all 19 games overall — en route to her second straight honorable-mention selection. The sophomore, a versatile shut-down defender, has not missed a game in her two seasons as a Cardinal.
 
Leonard proved her value both offensively and defensively, helping spearhead that stingy Cardinal defense from the midfield, while also giving the SMU offense a boost, scoring her first collegiate goal and adding a team-leading four assists in 10 conference contests. Leonard added a second goal — SMU's lone tally in its 2-1 MIAC Playoff quarterfinal loss to St. Olaf — to finish third on the team with eight points in 17 games played.
 
 Regular-season champion Carleton nearly made a clean sweep of the league's top honors, as Casey MacVeagh was named MIAC Offensive Player of the Year, Dean Piper was tabbed MIAC Defensive Player of the Year, Ashlyn Haigh was picked MIAC Co-Rookie of the Year, and head coach Jessica Mueller was picked MIAC Coach of the Year. St. Olaf's Cat Duffy-Shaw joined Haigh as MIAC Co-Rookie of the Year.