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WINONA, Minn. — For Mike Lester and the Saint Mary's University volleyball team, it's a good thing volleyball is a marathon, rather than a sprint.

In fact, were Tuesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against Macalester were a 100-yard dash, the Scots would be crossing the finish line about the time the Cardinals were getting out of the starting blocks.

After dropping a 30-28 Game 1 decision, then falling behind 6-0 in Game 2, the Cardinals decided to pick up the pace a bit, outscoring Macalester 30-16 to knot the match at 1-1, then cruising to wins of 30-19 and 30-26 in Games 3 and 4 to seal the come-from-behind conference win.

"We certainly didn't start out very well, but that's the nice thing about volleyball — one game doesn't make a match," said Lester, whose team moved to 1-1 in the MIAC and 8-4 overall with the win — a win that snapped the Cardinals' three-match losing streak. "To be honest, I wasn't all that surprised with the way we started, just because of the way we've been playing lately. We just weren't sharp in that first game, but once we got things back on track, we were pretty good."

Pretty good? How about very good.

Led by the one-two punch of Alex Nold (Spring Valley, Minn.) and Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.), the Cardinals' stamina KO'd the visiting Scots, as SMU rallied from that 6-0, Game 2 deficit to take its first lead 20-19 — and the Cardinals never trailed again.

"We had a great practice (Monday), and our setter and middles really started to connect and that just carried over into tonight's match," said Lester, who got a match- and career-high 23 kills from Nold, while Mate chipped in 18 kills and Rachel Monterastelli (Wonder Lake, Ill.) dished out a career-best 60 assists. "I was really proud of the way we battled back from such a sluggish start. We could have easily folded up and lost in three straight — but we never got  down, we just kept battling and that was the difference."