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Match Summary vs. Hamline / GameDay Online

ST. PAUL, Minn. — They were teams heading in opposite directions — the Saint Mary's University volleyball team enters Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener have dropped three straight matches, including back-to-back 3-0 losses in their final two matches at last weekend's Wartburg Invitational, while Hamline came in winners of five straight and nine of its first 10 matches.

In other words, Wednesday's match should have been a walk in the park for the Pipers, right?

Especially after the Cardinals blew a 23-19 Set 1 lead, allowing the Pipers to rattle off six unanswered points in the 25-23 victory, right?

Especially after the Pipers made it a 2-0 advantage with a 25-16 win in Set 2, right?

Wrong.

The Cardinals, unfazed by their recent three-game slide — not to mention the back-to-back losses to Hamline in the first two sets — rattled off wins of 25-23, 25-21 and 15-13 to earn the 3-2 victory.

"This was a huge win for us," said SMU coach Mike Lester, whose team was swept by the Pipers in their meeting a year ago. "Especially when you consider the way we fell apart in that first game — to be leading 23-19 and lose, that can be pretty demoralizing.

"I think the way we battled back shows the resiliency of this team," Lester added. "A lot of teams would have just folded up the tents and packed it in after losing the first two sets. Fortunately, this team isn't like that and they battled back to get the hard-fought victory."

Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.) led the way for SMU (1-0 MIAC, 9-6 overall), collecting a season-high 21 kills, while Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.) pitched in 16 kills and hit a team-best .333, while Courtney Runge (St. James, Minn.) chipped in 14 kills. Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.) dished out 50 assists — her second 50-plus assist performance and two assists shy of her career best — while Theresa Perrini (Fairway, Kan.) tallied a team-leading 27 digs.

"We needed a performance like this," said Lester. "I thought we played pretty well against La Crosse (a 3-0 loss in their final Wartburg Invitational match), and that just seemed to carry over to tonight. We started out a little slow, but never gave up, we just kept battling."

The Cardinals are now off until Sept. 24, when they travel to St. Paul, Minn., for a 7 p.m. conference match at Macalester.