WINONA, Minn. — With back-to-back victories over Bethel and Carleton, Saint Mary's University women's soccer coach Dan Blank saw just how much his young Cardinals had improved since opening day.

Last Saturday against St. Thomas, Blank and the Cardinals saw just how far they still had to go.

The Tommies — among five teams that are within one point of the top spot in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference — scored three goals in a nine-minute span early in the second half en route to a 4-0 victory over the Cardinals at Ochrymowyz Field.

"St. Thomas is a high-powered, explosive team, and we knew we were going to have our hands full trying to shut them down," said Blank, whose team entered the game riding its first two-game winning streak since the 2000 season. "I thought in the first half we did a nice job of shutting them down — but they made some adjustments at halftime and we couldn't stay with them."

The biggest adjustment the Tommies made was, rather than try and pass the ball through the Cardinal defense, they dribbled it through. And that, according to Blank, was the back-breaker for the Cardinals.

"It's a lot easier to defend against a team when they try and pass it through you — you always have the opportunity to just kick the ball away. But when you have to stick wtih them man-on-man, that's a whole different story," said Blank. "They were just too skilled for us to stay with them one-on-one."

The Cardinals had two golden scoring opportunities early in the first half, but UST goalie Rachel Lindor stymied SMU's Kelli Mooney (Maple Grove, Minn.) both times. And while Lindor was doing her part at one end, SMU goalkeeper Emily Strom (Waterford, Wis.) was equally as dominating at the other. Strom stopped five of the Tommies' six first-half shots, with Christine Williams' goal in the 15th minute the only one to elude the SMU senior.

"To hold St. Thomas to that one goal (in the first half) showed that improvement I've been talking about all season," said Blank. "I was very happy with our performance in that first half."

Then came the second half.

Williams, Mary Dienhart and Jade Crepps made good on three of UST's nine second-half shots, as the Tommies won their second straight and moved to 5-1-2 in their last eight games.

"It's one of those games where, I'm not totally disappointed with the loss — because the effort was there," said Blank. "But on the other hand, I know we can play them closer than that.

"This whole season's been a learning experience," continued Blank. "We learned (vs. Bethel and Carleton) what it takes to win in this conference. And we learned (against St. Thomas) what it takes to be among the best in the conference."