WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team takes the field for its NCAA Division III National Tournament opener on Thursday against host DePauw in Greencastle, Ind., it will mark the first time since 2005 the Cardinals have played in an NCAA Regional.
 
In other words, every member of the 2024 Cardinal squad is an NCAA neophyte.
 
But while the Cardinals may not have any national tournament experience, their head coach, John Tschida, has been on the national stage more than a few times — 26 to be exact — including guiding Saint Mary's and St. Thomas to a combined three NCAA Division III national championships.
 
And the Cardinals will be relying on their skipper's vast national tournament knowledge when they square off against DePauw.
 
"We have been preparing them with our practices and with the style we play," explained Tschida. "When we are aggressive on offense, it forces our defensive team to learn how to defend that as well. Challenging them during practices helps them handle challenges and learn to work their mental game."
 
"Coach Tschida has an uncanny ability to prepare us for the games physically and mentally," said sophomore Peyton Berg, one of the offensive spark plugs to the Cardinals' offensive engine. "It's important to Coach that we have had a championship mindset from the beginning of the season until now, so nothing has changed in regards to his expectations of us and our expectations of ourselves. 
 
"Coach has established a culture of expecting excellence with a winning mentality and a strong work ethic."
 
With that mentality and approach, Berg notes that while the monikers associated with the contests may change — from regular-season, to MIAC Playoffs, to NCAA National Tournament — the game itself doesn't change.
 
And neither will the Cardinals.
 
"We are still playing the same sport with the same teammates as we have all season," Berg said. "Coach will be able to set us up for success in the practices leading up to the NCAA tournament in terms of preparation for the environment, the competition, the pressure, and everything else that comes along with the honor of having the opportunity to compete in the NCAA tournament."
 
There is one thing Tschida can't do for the Cardinals, however — take the field and play alongside them.
 
That will be left to Berg, Steffes, and the rest of the conference champion Cardinals.
 
And if their performance through the first 40 games of the season are any indication, playing the game is something the Cardinals can handle just fine.
 
The Cardinals enter NCAA play sporting a .334 team batting average and boast five regulars who are boasting averages north of .300, including two — Makayla Steffes (Winona, Minn.) and Berg — who lead the team with .451 and .402 batting averages.
 
Steffes has been a double-edged sword for the Cardinals this season, not only haunting opposing pitchers with her lofty batting average and team-leading 60 hits — including 10 doubles, three triples, and two home runs — but she has been dominant in the pitcher's circle as well. The freshman right-hander has compiled a 17-4 record and a 2.29 earned-run-average with 14 complete games and a team-leading four saves in 131 2/3 innings of work.
 
Berg has enjoyed a banner sophomore season, collecting a team-high eight home runs among her 47 hits en route to her .402 batting average, while also leading the team with 36 RBIs.
 
Megan McGinnis (Appleton, Wis.), Ali French (Winona, Minn.), and Naleya Bork (Fond du Lac, Wis.) also provide plenty of offensive spark, while Heather Nordlund (Byron, Minn.) heads into NCAA play on the heels of back-to-back games with a two-run home run in the MIAC Playoffs.
 
In other words, much to the delight of Tschida, the Cardinals are a multi-faceted — and high-powered — offensive juggernaut.
 
"The players have developed and bought into a winning culture," Tschida said. "There are a lot of different, colorful personalities who have a goal of doing well at whatever they do and are making an effort to keep anything that gets in the way of that at bay.
 
"This team may be a young group — but it's a young group that keeps getting better and better each and every day."
 
The Cardinals were at their season's best last weekend, sweeping past Gustavus 3-1 in the semifinals before scoring four first-inning runs and never relinquishing the lead in topping Bethel to claim the MIAC Playoff title. 
 
"Winning the MIAC Playoffs was an exciting and thrilling experience for the team," said Berg. "It was amazing to see all of our hard work and grind pay off. It took the whole team to be able to achieve this, and every player was important and played a role in the achievement."
 
Yet, while being the conference's regular-season and postseason championship is certainly a feather in their cap, the Cardinals aren't satisfied just yet — far from it, in fact.
 
"We aren't finished, and we are going to do things the way we've done them all year," Tschida said. "As a coaching staff, we are going to have quality practices with several little adjustments to stay sharp, or to get sharper. We know softball is highly competitive in our region, and we expect a showdown every time we take the field."
 
Berg could not agree more.
 
"Our expectations going forward are to keep working and grinding as hard as we can every day," Berg said of SMU's "game plan" heading into Thursday's opener. "Coach always says that 'your skills will take care of you.' We can control how hard we work, and we will keep competing to be the hardest-working and most prepared."
 
With their 31-9 overall record — the most wins since 2005, which, ironically, is the last time Saint Mary's had been a part of the NCAA tournament field — not to mention their MIAC regular-season and postseason titles, even Tschida admits that this year's team has exceeded expectations.
 
"We always expect a lot of the team, but we had to beat some pretty good teams that have plenty of experienced veterans to get to where we are," said Tschida, whose Cardinals have played four games against nationally ranked teams this season — falling to then-No. 4 Coe 5-4 in eight innings, while beating Bethel three times, twice when the Royals were ranked No. 10 and last Saturday in the MIAC Playoff title game when BU was sitting No. 18. "They have come together very well relative to team chemistry, but their commitment to the game has impressed me more, considering how young we are.
 
"They are making their mark — with big, bold strokes."