DUBUQUE, Iowa. - On Saturday night, the Saint Mary's women's hockey team (7-3) secured the championship victory over the host school University of Dubuque in the Mississippi Match Up holiday tournament. The Cardinals defeated the Spartans 5-3 in the title game. Sophomore Celia Midtbo led the way with two goals.
 
The Cardinals moved onto the championship game after securing the victory Friday night over Lake Forest College and the University of Dubuque defeating Milwaukee School of Engineering to set the stage for the tournament championship. 
 
The Spartans stunned the Cardinals by scoring the first goal of the game just 15 seconds into the opening period to take the early lead. From that moment, the Cardinals took over and took the next ten shot attempts against the Spartans.
 
The Cardinals equalized with less than two minutes remaining in the first period, bringing the game to a 1-1 tie. Midtbo netted her first goal on a power play opportunity for her team. Fellow Sophomore Sophia Paduano found her on the slot for the goal. 
 
Saint Mary's followed Dubuques' lead, scoring within the first seconds of the second period to take their first lead of the game 2-1. Senior Allie Urlaub landed her third goal of the season with the assist from Reese Heitzman and Paduano, who had her second assist of the game. 
 
After trading shot attempts, the Cardinals jumped to a two goal lead after Midtbo nets her second of the game on another power play! The goal was zipped back-and-forth from Paduano and Sidney Polzin to find Midtbo at the 9th minute mark. 
 
Senior Polzin, who landed the assist on the third goal tallied a goal of her own goal, fourth of the season, for the insurance for the Cardinals just three minutes later. Leah Parker and Anna Braun with the assist. 
 
The Cardinals were sharing the put like no other!
 
The team just needed to play solid defense to claim the title. The Spartans inched back netting the next two goals in the third period to fall behind by one with 15 minutes remaining, 4-3. 
 
In the 13th minute, Heitzman nailed the final goal to close out the game from Alexa March and Paduano, who assisted on four of the five goals. This goal would be the agger for the Spartans and the Cardinals became the tournament champions!
 
The Cardinals will return home with hardware after a successful tournament in Iowa. 
 
The women's hockey team returns to conference play on Friday, December 6th for a 7 p.m. puck drop in Moorhead to face Concordia College.