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Cardinal Roster
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Cardinal Statistics
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Cardinal Schedule
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MIAC Standings
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MIAC Statistics
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| 2006 Records: 1-7-0 MIAC, 4-9-0 Overall |
| Recent Results: St. Olaf 4, Saint Mary's 0 / Details Augsburg 3, Saint Mary's 1 / Details |
| Upcoming Events: Sat., Oct. 21: SMU at Saint John's, ,3 p.m. |
| This and That: Despite Saturday's loss, SMU did something few teams have been able to do vs. Augsburg — score. SMU is just the second team to score vs. the Auggies. … The loss, however, was the Cardinals' third straight and their seventh in the last eight games. … SMU gave up a season-high four goals in its loss to St. Olaf last Tuesday. … SMU's loss to St. Olaf was just the second time this season the Cardinals have failed to score at least one goal. … After scoring 14 goals in thier first two games, SMU has managed just 14 more in their last 11. … James Kuhnle (Burlington, Wis.) scored SMU's lone goal last week, his third of the season and moved the SMU sophomore into second place in goals (3) and points (7). … Mike Schmitt (Woodridge, Ill.) remains the Cardinals' offensive leader with nine goals and 22 points. … Schmitt needs one more goal to equal his career high (10), set a year ago. His 22 points are already a career best. … Two of SMU's final three games are on the Cardinals' home field, where they are 2-4-0. |
struggles continue with 3rd straight MIAC setback
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James
Kuhnle Netted SMU's lone goal vs. Augsburg |
Rain on someone else's post-season parade.
Enter Augsburg.
The Auggies headed into last Saturday's conference game against the Cardinals tied for fifth place in the MIAC standings, just one point out of the fourth and final post-season playoff spot.
It was the perfect opportunity for SMU to be the spoiler.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Auggies turned the tables, spoiling SMU's spoiler plans with a 3-1 victory.
"Everyone's pretty down right now, but the reality is, we played a very good game against a quality opponent," said SMU coach Chris Dembiec, whose squad dropped its third straight. "We talked a lot this week about how we were going to approach our final four games. With three conference games in our last four, our goal was to go out and play the role of the spoiler.
"We had a chance to do that (against Augsburg), we just couldn't quite get the job done."
The Auggies jumped out on top early, and took a 1-0 advantage into the halftime intermission. Augsburg pushed that lead to 2-0, before SMU finally got on the board on a picture-perfect, full-volley shot by James Kuhnle (Burlington, Wis.). Augsburg, however, got a goal late in the second half to put the game out of reach.
Kuhnle's goal was just the third scored against Augsburg this season. Augsburg, which entered this week's play with the top defense, statistically, in the NCAA Division III national rankings, has now only been scored upon in two of its 15 games this season. Augsburg has outscored its opponents by a 33-3 margin this season, and the Auggies now have a team goals-against-average of 0.19.
"I thought we played much better tonight than we did Wednesday," said Dembiec, whose team gave up a season-high four goals in falling to St. Olaf 4-0 last Wednesday. "We're still struggling to play a complete game — we let (Augsburg) get out to a 2-0 lead before we started clicking on all cylinders. It's been out Achilles' heel all season, and it was again (Saturday).
"On the positive side, everyone played with a lot of enthusiasm, they worked hard and they battled from start to finish," continued Dembiec. "They should feel good about their effort "