NOTRE DAME, Ind. ­— The Saint Mary's (Ind.) women's soccer team controlled play throughout the 90 minutes as visiting Knox suffered a 3-0 defeat on Sunday at the Patricia Wiedner Purcell Athletic Fields. First-year goalkeeper Darby Wallig did all she could to keep the Prairie Fire (0-3) in the game, making 16 saves, but it was not enough to keep the Belles (1-2) at bay.

It took more than 25 minutes for Saint Mary's to dent the scoreboard, but Margaret Slove tallied twice in a five-minute span to give the Belles a 2-0 lead before halftime. Two minutes into the second stanza, Izzi Linus recorded the game's final goal with help from Slove and Mary Kaczynski.

• The final statistics were lopsided across the board for Saint Mary's, taking 31 shots (19 on goal) to just one that was off the mark for Knox, that off the foot of first-year Isabella Urrutia Flores. 
• The Belles are the first team to shut out the Prairie Fire this season.

"The statistics don't show it, but we played much better today than we did yesterday [when the team lost to Governors State, 4-1]," second-year head coach Annie Gerdes said following the contest. "But we need to do a better job of marking, which made all the difference today. We need to continue to improve our game every day."

The Prairie Fire return to campus to host Illinois Wesleyan University (0-3) on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. at Jorge Prats Field. Live video and stats will be available through the official website of Knox College athletics, PrairieFire.Knox.edu. The Titans will play seventh-ranked Wisconsin-La Crosse in the Midwest Tournament on Sunday before making the trek to Galesburg.