WINONA, Minn. — For the second straight match, the Saint Mary's University volleyball team started across the net at a nationally ranked opponent, as the Cardinals — fresh off a thrilling, 3-2 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win over Saint Benedict on Thursday — squared off against 19th-ranked Concordia Saturday afternoon at the SMU Gym.
Unlike Thursday's heart-stopper, however, the Cardinals did not have any late-match heroics, as the Cobbers escaped Winona with a 3-2 (19-25, 25-22, 19-25, 29-27, 15-13) victory.
“That was a great match,” understated SMU coach
Mike Lester, whose team had its seven-match losing streak, snapped with the loss. “Both teams played very well. For us to come out and play at that level in back-to-back matches — against two very good, nationally ranked teams — was good to see.”
Unfortunately, the Cardinals were only able to come away with one win for their efforts, and, Lester admits, silver linings are nice, but wins — against teams like Concordia — are even better.
“Sure, there are certainly a lot of positives we can take from a match like this,” admitted Lester. “But this team also knows — and proved Thursday against St. Ben's, and again today against Concordia — that not only can we compete with teams of this caliber, but we can also beat them.
“There's no question we were every bit as Concordia today.”
The Cardinals were dominating in two of the first three sets, sandwiching a pair of 25-19 wins around a 25-22 Set 2 loss in which Concordia never trailed.
The fourth set saw 18 ties and 10 lead changes, with SMU holding a 21-18 lead, only to have Concordia rattle off five straight points to take a 23-21 advantage. SMU made it 23-22 on a kill by Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.) — who finished with her second straight 19-kill effort — only to have the Cobbers regain the lead 24-22. A Courtney Runge (St. James, Minn.) kill and back-to-back attack errors by Concordia gave the Cardinals a 25-24 lead, but SMU could not seal the deal, as the Cobbers knotted things up, 25-25, on a kill by Ashley Beseman. SMU would again serve for the win at 26-25, but the Cobbers responded with two straight points to lead 27-27. The Cardinals would pull even, 27-27 on Cobber serving effort, but Concordia would capture the next two points to ice the win — and force a fifth and final set.
And Set 5 proved to be yet another see-saw affair, as SMU recovered from a slow start in which the Cobbers built leads of 8-3 and 10-5, finally pulling even at 13-13 when Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.) and Sarah Gardner (Rochester, Minn.) teamed to block a Leslie Olson attack.
That, however, would be as close as SMU would get, as a Cardinal service error and a kill by Beseman sealed the victory for the Cobbers.
“This has been two tough, emotional matches, and I'm proud of the way we battled all the way,” said Lester, who got 19 kills from Mate, 18 kills from Gardner and 16 kills and 18 digs from Runge, while Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.) finished with 55 assists. “The key for us now is to regroup and get ready for Wednesday's match against St. Catherine.
“As disappointed as everyone is about this loss, they also all realize the importance of Wednesday's match — our conference is so tough, we can't afford any type of letdown.”
