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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University and Concordia volleyball teams entered Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match headed in opposite directions:

The Cardinals entered the conference showdown have dropped back-to-back 3-0 decisions to Bethel and Saint Benedict.

The Cobbers, meanwhile, were coming off back-to-back 3-0 victories over Macalester and St. Olaf.

Unfortunately for SMU, when the dust settled Saturday afternoon, the two teams were still headed in the same directions.

The Cardinals did get a game off the nationally ranked Cobbers, but after spotting SMU a 30-24 Game 1 win, Concordia rattled off three straight wins en route to the 3-1 (24-30, 30-21, 30-26, 30-22) conference win.

"This was one of those matches where it's tough to feel totally disappointed, because we played some very good volleyball at times," said SMU coach Mike Lester. "The problem was, there were some times when we didn't play so well — and against a team as talented as Concordia, it's those runs when we aren't at the top of our game that really hurt."

The Cardinals looked like world-beaters in the opening game, using a 7-2 run to take a 20-14 advantage, then holding off a late Cobber run with four straight points to put the game away. SMU actually had the upper hand in Game 2 as well, leading early, before the Cobbers broke away from a 17-17 tie by scoring 13 of the next 17 points to even the match at 1-1.

And the Cardinals never recovered, as Concordia took control early in both the third and fourth games in winning for the third straight time and fourth time in its last five matches.

"We talked after (the Saint Benedict) match about how we can't be satisfied playing well and losing," said Lester. "I thought we played a very good match (against Concordia) and the team can take a lot of positives away from their performance. But in the end, it's still a loss.

"We've just got to keep plugging away, that's all there is to it," Lester added. "There were runs today when I just looked at my assistant coaches and said, 'Wow, we are really good.' And then there were four or five points when we weren't so good.

"We've got to find a way to keep those good runs and eliminate  the no-so-good ones. When we are playing at a high leve — like we showed in Game 1 and at times in the three other games —  we are as good as any team we'll face all year.

"We just need to stay at that high level on a more consistent basis."