Match Summary
WINONA, Minn. — One down, four to go.
The Saint Mary's University volleyball team entered Friday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against Macalester knowing that their hopes of reaching the conference's post-season tournament hinged on the Cardinals winning their remaining five matches.
And the Cardinals took Step 1 Friday with a 3-1 win over Macalester.
But it was far from easy.
The Cardinals built up huge leads in each of the four games, but couldn't put the pesky Scots away, settling for a 30-20, 32-30, 27-30, 30-27 victory.
"We knew coming in that we were going to have to play well to beat them — and I felt we did that," said SMU coach Mike Lester. "Our offense was in a much better rhythm that it has been lately and that was good to see. We got some great performances from Kirstan Rouzer (Comstock, Wis.), Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.) and Tracy Koertgen (Crystal Lake, Ill.). They stepped up their games tonight."
Indeed they did.
Rouzer collected a match-high 20 kills and tallied 15 digs, while Koertgen recorded 18 kills and 25 digs, and Dingels finished with 16 kills, a team-leading .364 attack percentage and a season-high nine blocks.
"It was good to see our offense click like that," said Lester, whose team snapped a three-match losing streak with the win. "There were times when we looked unstoppable. Unfortunately, there were other times when we didn't look so hot."
After cruising to a win in Game 1, the going got much tougher for the Cardinals, who did not hold the lead once in Game 2 until they went up 27-26, and SMU served for the win twice — 29-28 and 30-29 — before finally putting the game away. The Cardinals appeared to have the match wrapped up in the third game, racing out to leads of 10-3 and 15-9. The Scots, however, battled back, taking the lead for good on a pair of aces by Maggie Buttermore. SMU again raced out to a commanding lead in the fourth and final game, scoring 17 of the game's first 27 points and pushing that advantage to 21-12. Macalester rallied to tie the game, 27-27, but Melissa Cowan (Algonquin, Ill.) served the final three points to seal the win for SMU.
"This was a big, big win," explained Lester, whose team returns to action Saturday afternoon, playing host to St. Catherine. "Macalester came into the match in the same position as we were in (2-4 in the conference and battling for one of the final playoff spots). Had we lost this match, we definitely would have been out (of the playoff picture).
"Everyone knew what was on the line — and they went out and took care of business."
