WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University volleyball team headed into Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against Carleton coming off a victory over Hamline in which the Cardinals started slow and finished fast en route to a 3-1 victory.
On Wednesday, the Cardinals started fast and finished fast — it was the two sets in the middle that had head coach Mike Lester scratching his head.
The Cardinals raced out to a 2-0 lead with convincing 25-18 and 25-23 victories, struggled to find their groove in dropping Sets 3 and 4, 25-20 and 25-21, before getting back on track with a 15-10 fifth set win that gave SMU the 3-2 win at the SMU Gym.
“It was a tale of two matches,” said Lester, whose team moved to 2-2 in the MIAC and 12-5 overall with their second straight conference victory. “We came out and did what we had to do in the first two sets, but then we seemed to relax a bit and Carleton took advantage — (the Knights) played much better in the third and fourth sets and had us on our heels a bit.
“Fortunately, we were able to right the ship in the fifth set and come away with the win.”
Which, in the long run, is what really mattered.
“It's nice to be able to pick up a win even when you aren't at the top of your game,” said Lester. “We played OK, but we certainly can play better.
“And we are going to need to play better as we head into the heart of our conference schedule.”
Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.) led the way for the Cardinals, collecting a team-high 19 kills, while Sarah Gardner (Rochester, Minn.), Jessica Larson (Pine Island, Minn.) and Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.) also hit double figures with 16, 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.) dished out a season- and career-high 58 assists, while Tara Rasmussen (Kasson, Minn.) finished with a team-leading 20 digs.
Kelly Lovett tallied a match-high 20 kills, while Beth Jarrett tallied 43 assists for Carleton, which had its five-match winning streak snapped with the loss.
“This was a good win for us — a win we definitely needed,” said Lester, whose team heads to Northfield, Minn., this weekend to take part in the MIAC-IIAC Border Battle. “I was very happy with the way we bounced back after dropped those two sets. (Carleton) had all the momentum heading into that fifth set, and we did a nice job of taking that momentum back and getting the job done.”
