WINONA, Minn. — For the past two years, the Saint Mary's University and Augsburg volleyball teams have went the distance.
In 2007, the Auggies cruised to a 15-4 Set 5 victory to beat the Cardinals 3-2.
In 2008, it was 15-9 Augsburg in Set 5, as the Auggies again beat SMU 3-2.
Wednesday evening, the Cardinals were looking for a different outcome when the two teams squared off in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener.
What the Cardinals got was another five-set marathon.
And another 3-2 Augsburg win.
The Auggies rallied from a 2-1 deficit, winning the fourth set 25-21, then holding off a late SMU charge to beat the Cardinals 15-10 in the fifth and deciding set en route to a 3-2 (27-25, 20-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-10) victory.
“That's MIAC volleyball right there — every conference match we play is going to have that type of intensity,” said SMU coach Mike Lester, whose team had its eight-match winning streak — the fourth-longest win streak in the program's history — snapped with the loss. “I give our ladies credit, they battled from start to finish. This was a tough, tough match, and they gave it everything they had — which, as a coach, is all you can ask of them.”
The Auggies jumped out to a quick 7-1 lead in the opening set, but SMU came storming back, tying things up at 10-10 and 16-16. In fact, the set would be tied five more times — including 25-25 — before Augsburg scored the final two points to ice the win.
SMU bounced right back, using a late 9-4 run to snap a 16-16 tie and give the Cardinals the Set 2 win, 25-20. The Cardinals were unstoppable in the third set, recording the first seven points and leading 11-1 before settling for the 25-22 victory and 2-1 lead.
From there, however, it was all Augsburg, as the Auggies pushed their lead to as many as nine, 21-12, en route to the 25-21 Set 4 win, then rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to close out the match 15-10.
“We had been playing so consistently,” Lester said. “Tonight, that consistency wasn't there. We didn't serve-receive very well and (Augsburg) did a nice job of taking us out of our system.”
Sarah Gardner (Rochester, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinals, recording 17 kills and adding 10 digs, while Courtney Runge (St. James, Minn.) — the reigning MIAC Hitter of the Week — added 16 kills and 10 digs. Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.) and Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.) also reached double figures in kills with 12 and 11 kills, respectively, Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.) dished out a season-high 50 assists and Tara Rasmussen (Kasson, Minn.) tallied 27 digs.
“It's not exactly the way we wanted to start our conference season,” admitted Lester, whose team is back in action this weekend, traveling to Indianola, Iowa, for the two-day Simpson Invitational. “But we'll be OK — it's a long season, and we just have to take this match, learn from it, and move on.”
