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Game Summary / GameDay Online

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University volleyball team had its chances Friday evening.

The Cardinals just couldn't come up with the knock-out punch in their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against Saint Benedict.

SMU held the lead at some point in every game — including a 27-26 advantage in Game 2 — and the Cardinals were tied with the Blazers 29-29 and  were serving in Game 3.

Unfortunately, in all three games, the Cardinals let the Blazers off the hook, as CSB rolled to its eighth straight win — and its fifth straight three-game sweep — beating SMU 3-0 (30-22, 30-28, 31-29) at  the SMU Gym.

"We let this one slip away from us," said SMU coach Mike Lester, whose club has now dropped two straight in falling to 1-3 in the MIAC and 11-7 overall. "We put ourselves in position to win all three of those games, but we weren't able to seal the deal.

"This was one of those matches where, Saint Benedict didn't necessarily beat us — we beat ourselves."

After racing out to leads of 6-2 and 8-5 in the opener, the Cardinals began to unravel, as Saint Benedict went on an 18-8 run to take a 23-16 advantage and never looked back in rolling to the Game 1 win.

SMU bounced back and led the second game, 27-26, only to have Saint Benedict's Beth Hanson deliver three straight service aces to put the Blazers out front for good. It was more of the same in Game 3, as neither team could build a lead bigger than two points, and, with the score tied 29-29, the Blazers took advantage of back-to-back attack errors by the Cardinals to clinch the win.

"It's disappointing, because we are just as good as they are," said Lester, whose team is back in action on Saturday, playing host to 14th-ranked Concordia. "But you have to give (CSB) credit, they made the plays when they had to — and that's what you have to do to be a really good team in this league.

"Maybe that's what we are still learning," added Lester, who got 10 kills from Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.) and 30 assists from Rachel Monterastelli (Wonder Lake, Ill.). "I thought we played much better than we did (Tuesday) against Bethel, but for this team, it's not enough to play well and lose — it's about playing well and winning."