NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Saint Mary's University men's tennis coach Jeff Halberg had a simple message to his Cardinals prior to their season-finale against St. Olaf Saturday afternoon: "Give me your best," Halberg said.
 
And their best is exactly what the Cardinals gave their veteran head coach.
 
Unfortunately, SMU's best wasn't quite enough, as the Oles dealt SMU a season-ending 7-2 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at the Owatonna Indoor Tennis Center.
 
"I asked the team to give everything they had in their last match — and they did exactly that," Halberg said. "We gave a very tough St. Olaf a great match.  "I'm very proud of our effort this season."
 
St. Olaf grabbed a commanding 3-0 lead with 8-4, 8-5, and 8-2 wins in the three doubles matches, and picked up wins in four of the six singles contests to seal the win.
 
Trevor Smiley (Minnetonka, Minn.) and Brendon Raabolle (Andover, Minn.) collected SMU's two singles wins — and the Cardinal duo had to work overtime to get them. Smiley needed a 15-13 third-set win to record a 6-2, 4-6, 15-13 win at No. 4, while Raabolle was also stretched to a lengthy third set in winning 6-1, 4-6, 12-10 at No. 5.
 
The Cardinals closed out the season 0-8 in conference play, while ending the year 5-14 overall.