vs.
Saint Mary's Cardinals   5-5 MIAC / 17-11 Overall	3 p.m.	Gustavus Gusties   8-2 MIAC / 24-3 Overall
	vs.
Saint Mary's Cardinals   17-11 Overall	5 p.m.	UW-Superior   12-16 Overall

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Senior Salute Online

Last Action: The Cardinals kept their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff hopes alive Wednesday evening, rolling to a 3-0 victory over Carleton at the SMU Gym. … Gustavus, meanwhile, hung on to its share of second place in the conference standings with a 3-2 victory over Macalester Wednesday. … UW-Superior went 1-1 at the Crown Triangular Wednesday, falling to Northwestern (3-0) and sweeping Crown (3-0).

Last Meetings: With their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff hopes dashed, the Cardinals entered their season-finale a year ago hoping for a spot in next year's MIAC-IIAC Border Battle — and a win over the Gusties would help pave the way. The Gusties however, had other ideas. Still smarting from being eliminated from the MIAC playoff picture themselves, the Gusties took out their frustrations  on the Cardinals, beating SMU in three straight games, 3-0 (30-25, 30-24, 30-26). … UW-Superior pushed Saint Mary's into a second-straight five-set match during the opening day of the Jefferson's Sugar Loaf Classic in 2006, only, unlike their opening-round 3-2 loss to Maranatha, the Cardinals were able to write a much better ending. The Cardinals rallied from a two-games-to-one deficit to beat the Yellowjackets 3-2 and finish the opening day of the tournament 1-1.

All-Time Series Record: With their win against SMU a year ago, Gustavus improved to 21-14 all-time vs. the Cardinals since 1976. … SMU's win vs. the Yellowjackets in 2006 was the Cardinals' first in the teams' four-match history (1-3).

Playoff Picture: SMU and Augsburg are tied for the sixth and final playoff spot at 5-5, one game ahead of Carleton (4-6). With a victory over Gustavus and an Augsburg loss vs. St. Thomas, the Cardinals will be among the conference-tournament field. If both Augsburg and SMU win, the Auggies will get the nod due to their 3-2 win vs. SMU last Friday. If both Augsburg and SMU lose, and Carleton beats St. Olaf, the three teams will be tied for sixth at 5-6 and SMU advances, via the conference's second tie-breaking criteria. Since all three teams would be 1-1 in head-to-head competition — Augsburg beat SMU, SMU beat Carleton and Carleton beat Augsburg — the next tiebreaker is "game record percentage during matches between all tied teams." Saint Mary's is at 5-3 (3-0 vs. Carleton, 2-3 vs. Augsburg); Carleton is at 3-3 (3-0 vs. Augsburg, 0-3 vs. SMU) and Augsburg at 3-5 (3-2 vs. SMU, 0-3 vs. Carleton). … Gustavus, meanwhile, has already locked up a playoff berth.

Cardinal Notes: SMU improved to 6-2 in its last eight matches with Wednesday's 3-0 win over the Knights. …  The Cardinals' win over the Knights also snapped a six-match losing streak vs. Carleton, dating back to a 3-0 victory in 2002. …  Today's matches vs. Carleton and UW-Superior are SMU's fourth and fifth straight home matches. The Cardinals opened the season with just one home match — a 3-0 win vs. Bethel on Sept. 27 — in its first 25 matches. … Wednesday's sweep of the Knights Wednesday improved the Cardinals to 5-6 in three-set matches, while last Friday's loss to Augsburg was just the fourth five-set match SMU has played this season. The Cardinals are 2-2 in those four five-setters. … Ten of SMU's 16 wins have been 3-1 decisions. … Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.) and Courtney Runge (St. James, Minn.) posted 12-kill efforts to pace SMU vs. Carleton. … Theresa Perrini (Fairway, Kan.) finished with a match-best 18 digs vs. the Knights, giving the SMU senior 626 digs this season, while also pushing her school-record career total to 2,096. … Perrini is just 64 digs shy of her single-season record of 690 (set last year) with two matches to play. … Perrini leads the MIAC in digs (206) and digs/set (7.23). …  The Cardinals boast four players with 200 or more kills — led by Mate (294) and Gardner (291), while SMU has six players with 100 or more digs. … Heading into today's match against No. 19-ranked Gustavus, the Cardinals are 0-3 vs. nationally ranked teams this season, having lost to No. 5 St. Thomas (3-1), No. 25 Saint Benedict (3-0) and No. 12 Concordia (3-0).

Gustie Notes: With their win over Macalester Wednesday — GAC's second consecutive 3-2 victory — the Gusties ran their winning streak to nine straight. The Gusties have also won 11 of their last 12, with the lone loss a 3-0 setback vs. No. 5 St. Thomas. … Andrea Smilanich collected a team-best 17 kills, while Meghan Gehring chipped in 16 vs. the Scots Wednesday. … Gehring boasts a team-leading 284 kills (2.87 kps) and is one of three GAC players with 200 or more kills. … Bridget Burtzel — the reigning MIAC Setter/Libero of the Week — dished out 56 assists vs. the Scots. With her 56-assist effort, Burtzel eclipsed the 1,000-assist mark. She is currently at 1,016 assists with one match remaining. Burtzel also moved into the No. 3 spot in career assists with 3,566. … With its 3-2 win vs. Concordia last Saturday, Gustavus closed out its home season with an 11-1 record.

Yellowjacket Notes: Wednesday's loss to Northwestern marked the second time this season that the Yellowjackets have been swept by the Eagles. Northwestern also swept UW-Superior at the Augsburg Tournament on Sept. 5. … Kayla Finck collected 56 assists in the Yellowjackets' two matches Wednesday, pushing her team-leading assist total to 803. … Chelsie CHristofferson and Brittany Jarvis were UW-Superior's offensive leaders at the Crown triangular, collecting 17 and 16 kills, respectively. … Jess Ebel boasts a team-leading 274 klls (2.85 kps), while Christofferson has chipped in 204. … The Yellowjackets boast six players with 100 or more digs, led by Samantha Blake's 329. … Eleven of the Yellowjackets' 16 loss have been by 3-0 decisions.