• 0: The Saint Mary’s women’s soccer team opened the season with back-to-back shutout wins over UM-Morris (3-0) and Lawrence (2-0) last week. It’s the second straight season in which the Cardinals have shut out their first two opponents.
• 1: Amber Zitzow picked up her first win as the head coach of the Saint Mary’s volleyball team last Friday, guiding the Cardinals to a 3-0 win over Marian in their first match of the Grinnell/Central Invitational.
• 2: Just three games into the season, the Saint Mary’s men’s soccer team has scored two goals in a game twice, and played two games that have ended in a tie.
• 2: With their 3-0 win over UM-Morris last Thursday, the Cardinal women’s soccer team has now opened the season with a shutout victory in back-to-back seasons. SMU beat UW-Superior 2-0 to kick off the 2021 campaign.
• 3: Three of the five goals scored by the Saint Mary’s men’s and women’s soccer teams in their season-openers last Thursday were scored by freshmen. Santiago Montero (Phoenix, Ariz.) netted one of the SMU men’s team’s two goals in its 2-1 win over Crown, while Ella Lahart (Sherwood, Ore.) and Lauryn Skoruppa (Littleton, Colo.) tallied their first goals as Cardinals in the women’s 3-0 victory over UM-Morris.
• 4: The Cardinal men’s soccer team’s four goals this season have come from four different players — Santiago Montero (Phoenix, Ariz.), Jack Hurley (Homewood, Ill.), Rolando Lopez (Berwyn, Ill.) and Jacob Clements (Jacksonville, Fla.).
• 5: Ciarra McNally (Lewiston, Minn.) and Mandy Schmidt (Mitchell, Minn.) combined for five double-doubles in the Cardinal volleyball team’s four matches at the Grinnell/Central Invitational last weekend. McNally picked up kill-dig double-doubles in three of SMU’s four matches, while Schmidt at assist-dig double-doubles against both Bethany Lutheran and Buena Vista last Saturday.
• 5-1-1: With last Thursday’s 2-1 victory over Crown, the Cardinal men’s soccer team improved to 5-1-1 in their last seven season-openers, the lone blemishes a 3-0 loss to the University of Dubuque a year ago, and a 1-1 tie with St. Olaf during the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
• 8: After eight straight penalty-kick goals recorded by graduated senior Eli Szymanski, Jack Hurley’s (Homewood, Ill.) second-half PK goal in the SMU men’s soccer team’s 2-1 win over Crown last Thursday marked the first PK goal not scored by Szymanski since Zach Bracken converted on Oct. 23, 2019.
• 11: Alexis Nguyen (West Corvina, Calif.) — the reigning MIAC Defensive Player of the Year — did not have to make a save en route to her first shutout of the season in the SMU women’s soccer team’s 3-0 win over UM-Morris last Thursday, and followed that up with a two-save effort in blanking Lawrence three days later. Nguyen, who recorded eight shutouts a year ago, has now collected 10 shutouts in her four-year collegiate career.
• 11: Abbie Stigler (Chatfield, Minn.) recorded a career-high 11 kills in the Cardinal volleyball team’s 3-1 win over Buena Vista last Saturday. The freshman had recorded a then-career-best 11 kills in SMU’s 3-0 sweep of Bethany Lutheran earlier in the day.
• 19:50.95: Emily Kern (Buffalo, Minn.) turned in the fastest time for the Saint Mary’s women’s cross country team at last Friday’s Augustana Invitational, touring the five-kilometer course in 19.50.95,
• 21:28.67:Granton Schneider (Moorhead, Minn.) — making his collegiate debut — led the way for the SMU men’s cross country team at the season-opening Augustana Twilight last Friday, posting a four-mile time of 21:28.67.
• 25: Peyton Berg (Chatfield, Minn.) recorded a career-high 25 digs in the Saint Mary’s volleyball team’s 3-2 loss to Grinnell last Friday.
• 28: Ciarra McNally (Lewiston, Minn.) delivered a season-high 28 kills — four shy of her program record — in the Cardinal volleyball team’s 3-2 loss to Grinnell during the opening day of the Grinnell/Central Invitational last Friday.
