WINONA, Minn. — It was only fitting that on a night when the Saint Mary's University volleyball team recognized the fight for breast cancer awareness by hosting Dig Pink Night, the Cardinals were record a season-high 85 digs in their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against St. Catherine at the SMU Gym.
And the Cardinals needed every one of those digs to leave the Wildcats feeling blue, as SMU rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat St. Catherine 3-2 (21-25, 27-29, 25-22, 25-19, 15-13).
“It was a great match — by both teams,” said SMU coach Mike Lester, whose Cardinals have now played three straight five-set matches, beating 16th-ranked Saint Benedict 3-2 last Thursday and falling to No. 19 Concordia on Saturday heading into Wednesday's contest. “You have to tip you hat to (St. Catherine), they played a great match, and really, outplayed us for a majority of it.
“But you also have to give our ladies credit, they never gave up — they were battling from behind the entire night and still found a way to come up with a big play whenever we needed it.”
And the Cardinals needed a lot of big plays — especially after dropping the first two sets, and staring at a 14-10 deficit in the third.
“We just never gave up,” Lester said. “Our backs were to the wall from the third set on, but we just kept battling. If nothing else, it certainly was an exciting match.”
SMU rattled off 15 of the set's final 23 points to earn the 25-22 win in Set 3, then erased deficits of 14-10 and 16-11 to win Set 4, 25-19, and force the fifth and deciding set.
And, the fifth set wasn't any different than the previous four, as SMU fell behind 4-0, 7-2 and 10-7, before using an 8-3 run — including back-to-back, match-clinching kills from Sarah Gardner (Rochester, Minn.) to break a 13-13 tie and give the Cardinals their eight win in their last nine matches.
“We knew coming in that St. Catherine was going to give us a battle, and they did — we just couldn't seem to shut down their offense all night,” said Lester, whose team moved to 4-3 in the MIAC and 18-6 overall. “For us to play three, five-set matches — and play them at such a high level — that says a lot about the type of team we have.
“This was definitely a great team effort.”
Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.), who earned MIAC Hitter of the Week honors after collecting 19 kills in SMU's matches vs. Saint Benedict and Concordia, did her season-best effort one better — make that five better — as the junior outside hitter hammered home a career-best 24 kills vs. the Wildcats.
Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.), Gardner and Courtney Runge (St. James, Minn.) also collected double-digits in kills, finishing with 18-16 and 14 kills, respectively. Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.) dished out a career-best 65 assists — giving the SMU senior setter 181 assists in her last three matches combined — while Runge and Erika Hurley (Chatfield, Minn.) finished with 21 and 20 digs, respectively to pace SMU's 85-dig attack.
“For us post 85 digs — not to mention 79 kills — was amazing,” said Lester. “It was just a great night all the way around.”
