Cardinals breeze past Norse, 3-0

Donny Nadeau, SMU Sports Information Office

Match Summary

WINONA, Minn. — There was a lot on the line for the Saint Mary's University volleyball team when it took the floor for Friday's opening-round match of the SMU Sugar Loaf Classic against UW-Stevens Point.

There was the Cardinals' 17-match home winning streak.

There was SMU's determination to defend the Sugar Loaf title it won a year ago.

There was the Pointers' gaudy season-opening six-match winning streak.

Pressure, what pressure?

The Cardinals shook off a sub-par first game and a disastrous fourth game to slip past the Pointers, 3-2, 27-30, 30-17, 30-17, 28-30, 15-10 and inch one step closer to a second straight Sugar Loaf Classic title.

Make that two steps closer — thanks to a much easier 3-0, 30-25, 30-23, 30-15 win over Luther in their second match on Friday.

"That first match was a great match — it certainly had its share of momentum swings," said SMU coach Mike Lester, whose team pushed its record to 6-1 with the win. "When we passed well — like we did in the second and third games — we are going to beat a lot of people. When we don't (like in Games 1 and 4), we are going to struggle.

"It's going to be our theme all season — if we pass well, we play well, if we don't … ."

The Cardinals rebounded from the opening-game loss in impressive fashion, dominating the Pointers in Games 2 and 3, and appeared to have the match locked up, leading 16-9 and 26-19, before UW-SP scored 11 of the next 12 points to tie the match at two games apiece.

"We let that game slip away," said Lester, who got a match-high 26 kills and 10 digs from Kirstan Rouzer (Comstock, Wis.), while Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.) chipped in 15 kills and Tessa Stranik (Eatonville, Wash.) dished out 54 assists. "You have to give (Stevens Point) credit, they hung in there in that fourth game. Hopefully our team learned a valuable lesson from that game — you can't relax, you can't take anything for granted."

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