vs.
Saint Mary's Cardinals   19-12 Overall		Gustavus Gusties   25-3 Overall

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Last Action: Making their first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament appearance since 2004, the Cardinals knocked off third-seeded Saint Benedict 3-2 Tuesday. … Second-seeded Gustavus, meanwhile, has been off since last Saturday, when the Gusties posted a 3-0 victory over Saint Mary's in the teams' regular-season conference finale.

How They Got Here: The Cardinals enter the MIAC playoffs as the No. 6 seed. SMU finished in a sixth-place tie with Carleton and Augsburg, and earned the final playoff berth via the second tiebreaker. 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 was 5-3 (3-0 vs. Carleton, 2-3 vs. Augsburg); Carleton was 3-3 (3-0 vs. Augsburg, 0-3 vs. SMU) and Augsburg was 3-5 (3-2 vs. SMU, 0-3 vs. Carleton). … Gustavus, meanwhile, finished tied for second in the regular-season conference standings with Saint Benedict, and the Gusties held the tiebreaker with a 3-1 win over the Blazers on Oct. 22.

Last Meeting: The Gusties made things look easy against the Cardinals in their regular-season final less than a week ago, opening the match with a 25-14 win, then following that up with wins of 25-22 and 25-17 to complete the 3-0 sweep.

A Year Ago: 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).

All-Time Series Record: With their win against SMU last Saturday, the Gusties improved to 22-14 all-time vs. the Cardinals since 1976.

Cardinal Notes: Tuesday's win over Saint Benedict was the Cardinals' second straight and eighth in their last 11 matches. The Cardinals enter tonight's match with a 19-12 overall record. SMU's 19 wins are the most since the Cardinals went 21-10 during the 2004 season, which, ironically, is also the last time they have quailed for the MIAC tournament. … Tuesday's win over Saint Benedict — ranked No. 19 in the latest AVCA Top 25 Poll — was SMU's first vs. a ranked team this season. The Cardinals had previously dropped matches to its three ranked opponents — No. 18 Gustavus (3-0), No. 17 Concordia (3-0), No. 6 St. Thomas (3-1) and No. 19 CSB (3-0). … Tuesday's 3-2 victory also moved SMU to 3-2 in five-set matches. Ten of SMU's 18 wins have been 3-1 decisions. … Jessica Larson (Pine Island, Minn.) collected a team- and career-high 15 kills vs. the Blazers, while Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.) chipped in 10 kills and five blocks. … Theresa Perrini (Fairway, Kan.) recorded 29 digs vs. the Blazers, pushing her season total to 691 — one more than her previous single-season record of 690, set a year ago. … The 29 digs also pushed Perrini's all-time career digs record to 2,153. … Perrini finished the regular season as the conference's dig leader (294). She also led the MIAC in digs-per-set (7.17). … Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.) finished with 40 assists vs. the Blazers, as the junior setter eclipsed the 1,000 assist mark for the first time in her SMU career. Cherwinka currently leads the team with 1,035 assists, becoming the 10th SMU player ever to eclipse the 1,000-assist mark. … Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.) and Sarah Gardner (Rochester, Minn.) enter tonight's tournament match as SMU's top offensive threats. Mate leads the team in kills (319) and kills-per-set (2.93), while Gardner is second in both categories (313 kills, 2.72 kps). … Mate also boasts a team-best 28 service aces, while Larson has collected a team-leading 90 blocks.

Gustie Notes: The Gusties enter tonight's match boasting their highest national ranking of the season at No. 18. … Gustavus is the MIAC Tournament's No. 2 seed for the second time in the last three seasons. … GAC comes into the post-season tournament riding a 10-match winning streak. The Gusties last loss was a 3-0 decision to No. 6 St. Thomas on Oct. 3. … Two of the Gusties' three losses have come in MIAC play, where they finished 9-2. … Gustavus finished the regular season at 25-3, which is the best record by a Gustie team under coach Kari Eckheart's direction. It is also the most wins by the squad since 1994, when the team finished 31-10. … The Gusties boast four players with 200 or more kills, led by Meghan Gehring (290) and Olivia Warren (282). … As a team, Gustavus has posted 155 aces, led by Emily Klein's 52. Klein also led the MIAC in aces, collecting 20 in 42 conference sets. … Klein also leads the team with 600 digs and is one of six GAC players with 100 or more digs. … Bridget Burtzel eclipsed the 1,000-assist mark this season, boasting 1,050 assists heading into tonight's match. … The Gusties have played just three five-set matches this season — including back-to-back 3-2 wins vs. Concordia and Macalester during the last week of the regular-season.