NORTHFIELD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University volleyball team's road to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament is a pretty simple one: Win their final three conference matches, and get a little help along the way.

Wednesday evening, the Cardinals cleared the first road block — but it wasn't easy.

The Cardinals, fueled by the offensive performances of Megan Roesler (St., Paul, Minn.) and Lisa Engdahl (North Branch, Minn.) held off five match points in the fifth and deciding game to beat St. Olaf 3-2 (30-27, 28-30, 23-30, 30-23, 20-18).

Roesler collected a match-high 21 kills, while Engdahl chipped in 20 as the Cardinals picked up their second straight win and improved to 3-6 in the MIAC and 10-13 overall.

"We knew coming into (Wednesday's match) that our playoff chances were slim at best, and that this was a match we had to have," said SMU coach Mike Lester. "If we are going to make the (MIAC) tournament, we have to win our last two matches — and we're going to need a lot of help. Our chances are still pretty slim, but at least we still have a shot."

Thanks to the play of Roesler, Engdahl and the rest of the Cardinals.

"We played very well, and got the job done," said Lester, who also got a career-high 63 assists from Carolyn Kiefer (New London, Wis.). "We've still got two very tough matches to go (Friday at home vs. defending MIAC champion Carleton and next Wednesday at Gustavus), but who knows? If we play the way we did tonight — especially in that fifth game — we can beat anyone."

The Cardinals rallied from a 2-1 deficit with a key 30-23 Game 4 win, but faced elimination on five separate occasions in the fifth game, but each time came up with a key side-out to stay alive.

"That fifth game was unbelievable," said Lester, noting that the Oles hit .355 in Game 5, while his Cardinals hit a whopping .393. "Both teams were getting kill after kill with not a lot of errors. It came down to who would get those last two points — and, fortunately, it was us."