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After posting two 3-0 victories Friday, the Cardinals came out Saturday with the same fire and defeated both Centre and Elmhurst 3-1.
“This was a good tournament for us — a good start to the season,” SMU coach Mike Lester said. “We came out and played really well (on Friday), and put together two more solid performances (Saturday).
“We knew Centre and Elmhurst were going to be very tough opponents, and I thought everyone stepped up to the challenge.”
Sarah Gardner led the Cardinals with 13 kills and 14 digs in the first match against Centre and 14 kills and 12 digs against Elmhurst.
“It’s always nice to get your season off on the right foot,” Lester said. “I think this team showed me a lot this weekend.”
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GOLDEN, Colo. — The Winona State University volleyball team picked up its first win of the season in its opening match against Adams State (Colo.).
After falling behind 2-0, the Warriors won its last three games 25-22, 25-18, 15-8. Kerry Daly and Jessi Peterson had 15 kills apiece, Mollie Bjelland had 56 assists and Rudi Balich had 23 digs.
“It was very exciting,” WSU coach Connie Mettille said. “We learned how to fight this weekend. I’m very proud of that.”
In its second match, the Warriors showed a little fatigue and were swept 3-0 by Mesa State (Colo.).
“We played three five-game matches in a row and it showed,” Mettille said. “We were out of gas and we’ve been dealing with a few injuries. I feel we learned a lot and now we have to get back in the gym and improve.”
Men’s soccer
SMU 3, Presentation (S.D.) 2
ABERDEEN, S.D. — The Cardinals (1-1) picked up their first win of the season thanks to the foot of Christian Reyes, who scored his second goal of the game with 57 seconds remaining in overtime.
“This was a big win for us — especially because we had to come from behind to do it,” said SMU coach Chris Dembiec, whose team suffered a 5-1 season-opening loss to UM-Morris on Friday. “I thought we came out and played very well early (against UM-Morris), but then our intensity level kind of fell off the table. (Against Presentation) we started strong and just kept building off that.”
After falling behind 2-1, Steve Boussie of the Cardinals scored on a penalty kick late in the second half to tie the game and eventually send the game to overtime.
“Offensively, we were pretty impressive,” said Dembiec. “We struggled to score goals (last season), so for us to generate the type of offense we did today is encouraging.”
Women’s soccer
SMU 9, Presentation (S.D.) 0
ABERDEEN, S.D. — The Cardinals used five first-half goals, two of them from Amy Sibek, to improve its record to 2-0.
“It was an impressive offensive display,” SMU coach Eric Zimmerman said. “The best part was, almost every one of the goals was a quality goal — there weren’t any cheap goals in the bunch.”
Bethany Kaufmann, Kelsey Brown, Kelsey Peyton, Amanda Rahman, Marie Allen, Rachel Gates-Vickery and Melissa Paulson all tallied goals for the Cardinals.
“This was an important weekend in that it gave us a good measuring stick as to where we are at,” Zimmerman said. “I like what I saw this weekend but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
