ORLANDO, Fla. — Day 2 of their spring trip proved to be much more favorable for the Saint Mary's University women's tennis team, as the Cardinals racked up a pair of nonconference victories.
 
Saint Mary's — coming off a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Calvin in their spring trip-opener on Monday — kicked off the second day of their stay at the USTA National Campus with an impressive 9-0 victory over Houghton.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the end of the day didn't go quite as well as the beginning, as Saint Mary's dropped a 9-0 decision to Piedmont.
 
"Depth was the key for us against Houghton," said Saint Mary's coach Jeff Halberg. "The ladies put together a dominating performance, and the final score showed that. Piedmont was a tough, tough opponent. I thought we played well, we just couldn't match their firepower."
 
The Cardinals made it look easy against the Highlanders in their opening match, dropping just 16 games in sweeping the six singles matches, including a 6-0, 6-0 sweep by Peyton Buerman () at No. 5 and a 6-1, 6-1 victory by Maddie Dosser (South St. Paul, Minn.) at No. 2. Zoie Becker (St. James, Minn.), Ashley Renwick (Farmington, Minn.), and Sarrianna Hoffer (Wausau, Wis.) also recorded straight-set singles wins against Houghton.
 
Dosser and Kailee Johnson (Rochester, Minn.) breezed to an 8-0 win at No. 2 doubles, while Natalie Peterson (St. Cloud, Minn.) and Emily Henderson (Jordan, Minn.) added an 8-2 win at No. 1. SMU earned a forfeit win at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles to complete the win.
 
The Cardinals dropped all three doubles matches to open their first-ever meeting with Piedmont in their second match of the day, falling 8-4 at No. 1 and No. 3, and 8-1 at No. 2.
 
And singles didn't go much better for SMU, as Piedmont rattled off six straight-set victories to complete the sweep.
 
After an off-day on Wednesday, the Cardinals (6-4 overall) will close out their spring trip schedule on Thursday, squaring off against Mount Vernon Nazarene in a 3:30 p.m. EST nonconference match at the USTA National Campus.
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