Match Summary

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — If there was one thing that the Saint Mary's University volleyball team could rest its hat on, it's that, the Cardinals had not lost three straight matches all season.

Twice this season, the Cardinals had lost two in a row — and twice, SMU responded with a convincing 3-0 victory.

Tuesday evening, the Cardinals entered the first round of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament against St. Benedict having loss back-to-back losses to St. Olaf and Gustavus.

But, with history on their side, Tuesday's tournament-opener should have been another 3-0 cakewalk for the Cardinals, right?

Not quite.

The Cardinals' run through the postseason ran into an opening-round roadblock, as St. Benedict got 14 kills from a trio of players — and took advantage of SMU's sluggish opening two games — to hand the Cardinals a 3-0 (30-26, 30-20, 25-30, 30-20) setback.

Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.) recorded a match-high 19 kills — the 24th time this season the SMU senior has tallied more than 10 kills — and Kirstan Rouzer (Comstock, Wis.) chipped in 14, but it was not enough, as the Cardinals closed out their season with their first three-match losing streak of the season.

SMU (21-10 overall) hit just .170 in the opening game, then managed just 12 kills in 50 attempts (.020) in the second game. SMU rebounded with an 18-for-38 (.368) performance in the third game, but it was too little, too late, as St. Benedict closed out the match with a second 30-20 win.

The Blazers (18-3 overall), who will take on No. 2 seed Concordia in one of the two MIAC semifinals, easily one the opening two games, got 14 kills from Shantelle Needham, Emily Stessman and Claire Loesch and 13 from Teri Knapper en route to the win.