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DECORAH, Iowa — As if having to recover from back-to-back losses to Bethel on Saturday wasn't hard enough, the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team had to do so against the nation's 11th-ranked team Sunday afternoon.

And the Norse certainly weren't the most gracious of hosts, as Luther erupted for three runs in three separate innings in handing the Cardinals an 10-2 setback in the opening game of their nonconference doubleheader. Luther then completed the sweep with a 6-2 victory in the nightcap.

Luther jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opener with the first of its three three-run innings in the second, but the Cardinals answered right back scoring twice — getting RBI singles from Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) and Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) — in the top of the third, but that would be the extent of SMU's offense.

The Norse, meanwhile, were just getting warmed up, scoring once in the third, once in the fourth, and then icing the win with back-to-back three-run innings in the fifth and sixth.

Luther pitcher Lexi Determan limited SMU to four Game 1 hits, two off the bat of Carter and one each by Betzold and Hailey Ohl (Bloomington, Minn.) Determan struck out 10 and did not walk a batter win running her record to 13-2.

It was yet another three-run inning that did in the Cardinals in the nightcap, as Luther scored three times in the fifth to jump out to a 4-0 lead. SMU cut the Norse lead in half with a pair of runs in the sixth — one on Erin Stenseth's (Eau Claire, Wis.) third home run of the season, and the other on an RBI single by Michelle Carne (Escanaba, Mich.) — but Luther answered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the sixth to seal the win.

SMU (12-10 overall) returns to action on Wednesday, traveling to Minneapolis, Minn., for a 4 p.m. conference doubleheader against Augsburg.