ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — Friday evening, the Saint Mary's University volleyball team — with a little help from some new-found friends — put themselves in great position for one of the six Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff berths, sweeping Macalester 3-0, while St. Catherine, Augsburg and Concordia all lost.
With the win, and those three losses, the Cardinals leap-frogged over St. Catherine and Augsburg and into fourth place in the conference standings.
A 3-1 conference loss to Bethel Saturday, however, left the Cardinals right back where they started the weekend — in the hunt, but hanging on for dear life.
“We certainly didn't do ourselves any favors today,” said SMU coach Mike Lester. “You have to give Bethel a ton of credit — they played very well today. It wasn't so much that we played poorly, it's that (Bethel) played well — we just couldn't stop them.”
Not only did the loss snap the Cardinals' three-match winning streak, but it also dropped SMU to 5-4 in the conference — and into a four-way tie for fourth place.
Unfortunately, only three of those four teams will receive invitations to the conference's post-season tournament. Which means, there will be plenty on the line when the Cardinals close out their season with road matches at St. Olaf (7-2) on Wednesday and at Gustavus (3-6) on Saturday.
“It's going to be an interesting week,” said Lester, whose team is 1-2 against the other teams in the fourth-place logjam, having beaten St. Catherine, while losing to Augsburg and Concordia — with all three matches going the maximum five sets. “With the win on Friday, we were in a great position to secure a (tournament) spot. We just weren't able to get the job done today.”
Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.) led the way for the Cardinals, who hit .224 as a team, collecting 15 kills, while Jessica Larson (Pine Island, Minn.) finished with 13 kills and a .400 attack percentage, and Courtney Runge (St. James, Minn.) and Sarah Gardner (10 kills) added 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.) dished out 48 assists and Tara Rasmussen (Kasson, Minn.) tallied 13 digs in the losing effort.
