Match Summary

WINONA, Minn. — The first four games of Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference volleyball match at the SMU Gym were a coin flip.

Heads (Games 1 and 4) — Saint Mary's won.

Tails (Games 2 and 3) — St. Olaf won.

Game 5, however, was anything but a flip of the coin, as the Oles were virtually flawless, hitting .636 with eight kills in 11 attempts, while the Cardinals struggled, committing more errors (4) than kills (3), as St. Olaf handed SMU a 3-2 (26-30, 30-22, 30-23, 27-30, 15-7) setback.

"Everyone's a little disappointed, because this is a match that could have very easily gone in our favor," said SMU coach Mike Lester, whose team fell to 3-7 in the MIAC and 9-15 overall. "We played so well in the first game, struggled in the second and third, but then came back nicely in the fourth game … we just fell apart in that fifth game.

"Anytime a match goes to a fifth game, the team that is most aggressive, usually comes out on top — and we were anything but aggressive in that fifth game," continued Lester. "We were tentative in our serve receive, we were tentative on our serves, we were playing more not to lose, rather than playing to win. And when you do that, you are prone to make more mistakes.

"And we certainly made our share in that last game."

Molli Dant (Forest City, Iowa) did her part to keep the Cardinals in the match, as the SMU senior collected career highs in kills (28) and attempts (82), while also adding 19 digs. Breanna Benham (Deer River, Minn.) dished out 56 assists, while Theresa Perrini (Fairway, Kan.) recorded 39 digs, leaving her just 25 back of the school record of 507 digs in a season.

"You have to give Molli a ton of credit, she carried us the whole night," praised Lester of one of his four seniors, who will close out their collegiate careers on their home floor next Wednesday against Gustavus. "I think that's what's most frustrating about tonight — we had a lot of great individual efforts, but we weren't able to pool them all together at the right times to get the win.

"I don't think we were as sharp tonight as we were (last Wednesday) against Augsburg or (last weekend) at the Morris Tournament," added Lester. "But you also have to give Olaf some credit, they made a couple of nice adjustments that really gave us trouble."