ST. PETER, Minn. — If Mike Lester had his way, there isn't much he'd change about the Saint Mary's University volleyball teams Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference finale against Gustavus Wednesday evening.

Except, of course, the final score.

The Cardinals rallied from a 2-0 deficit to force a fifth and deciding game, then came from behind to tie Game 5 14-14, only to give up the game's final two points in losing 3-2 (30-18, 33-31, 29-31, 25-30, 16-14).

"The match went just about the way we expected it to," said Lester. "We knew that it was going to be an up-and-down match, but I never expected it to be that up-and-down."

After getting manhandled in the opening game, SMU got its offense on track.

"Our offense was pretty predictable tonight — we had 224 swings, and our outsides had 140 of them," said Lester, noting that Lisa Engdahl (North Branch, Minn.) led the way with 22 kills, while Molli Dant (Forest City, Iowa) added 18. "But I thought offensively, we did a pretty nice job.

"We got off to a pretty ragged start," admitted Lester. "But you have to give this team credit — all year they've battled from start to finish, and tonight was no different. They fell behind in almost every game, but they never gave up.

"It's just too bad the final score didn't come out in our favor."