WINONA, Minn. — When Amy Cory (Crystal Lake, Ill.) arrived on the Saint Mary's University campus in late August, she had every intention of continuing her soccer career as a midfielder for the Cardinals.

Coach Tony Guinn, however, had other ideas.

With Cory's speed and ball-handling skills, Guinn quickly transformed Cory into a forward — which proved to be great news for the Cardinals, and the worst possible news for their opponents.

Cory recorded her second collegiate hat trick — scoring goals No. 9, 10 and 11 on the season — as SMU cruised to a 3-0 win over Bethel at Ochrymowycz Field last Saturday afternoon.

"Not bad for someone who has never played forward before, huh?" said Guinn, whose team improved to 2-3-0 in the MIAC and 5-6-1 overall. "Amy has had an incredible start to her career. She's a natural forward, and so far, there really hasn't been a team we've played who has been able to shut her down."

In fact, of the six games in which SMU has scored, Cory has accounted for at least one goal in five of the six.

"This was one of Amy's better all-around games," said Guinn, who watched as Cory scored in all different ways — on a chip shot in the first half, on a shot into the upper right corner early in the second half, and on a laser into the lower left-hand corner late in the second half. "But she also didn't do it alone. She may have been on the finishing end of all three goals, but everyone else did their part to get her the ball."

Cory got the Cardinals on the board early in the first half, chipping a shot over Bethel goalkeeper Jenni Pulford at the 19:43 mark. The SMU freshman made it 2-0 13 minutes into the second half, then closed out the scoring with her third of the game on a shot from just inside the 18 that beat Pulford and found the lower left corner of the net.

"This was a good win for us. If it weren't for one mistake (vs. Concordia), we could have gone 3-0 in our last three games — against three pretty good conference teams," said Guinn, referring to SMU's 3-2 win vs. Gustavus and 1-0 loss to Concordia in their previous two games. "Our emphasis from Day 1 has been on playing good soccer — not on how many wins we've got, — and I think that's really been the key to our success this season.

"When you focus on playing good soccer — on doing things the right way — the wins will take care of themselves. And right now, they are."