WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University volleyball team plays host to Saint Benedict in the opening round of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Tuesday evening at the SMU Gym.

The Matchup:
Saint Mary's Cardinals: 7-4 MIAC / 21-9 Overall
Saint Benedict Blazers: 6-5 MIAC / 17-11 Overall

Tickets:
$7 for adults; $3 for students. Because this is an MIAC post-season event, no passes will be accepted.

GameDay Live On The Web:
Live Stats-Video / Video Preview / GameDay Preview

Last Action:
The Cardinals had three players with 10 or more kills — led by Sarah Gardner (Rochester, Minn.) with 16 — as SMU rallied from a first-set loss to beat Gustavus 3-1 Saturday and earn the right to host the Blazers in Tuesday's tournament opener. Saint Benedict, meanwhile, could not keep pace with nationally ranked Concordia Saturday, falling to the Cobbers 3-1.

Last Meeting — October 8, 2010:
The Cardinals put together one of their most dominating performances of the season, collecting a 3-1 (25-18, 25-16, 14-25, 25-23) conference win over the Blazers in St. Joseph, Minn. Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.) recorded 19 kills and hit .395 in leading SMU to a four-set win.

Saint Mary's Cardinals News and Notes:
With Saturday's win, the Cardinals locked up their first home MIAC Tournament match since the 2001 season. … The Cardinals are making their third straight MIAC Tournament appearance. … SMU and Saint Benedict squared off in the opening round of the 2008 conference tournament, with the Cardinals coming away with a 3-2 win in St. Joseph, Minn. … SMU has won its last three meetings against the Blazers. … The Cardinals enter post-season play with a 21-9 record, marking the second straight season — and 10th time in the program's history — that they have eclipsed the 20-win barrier. … The Cardinals finished the regular season 8-3 on their home court. … With her 16 kills vs. Gustavus in Saturday's regular-season finale, Sarah Gardner (Rochester, Minn.) — who has now collected 10 or more kills in eight straight matches and 24 times this season — enters today's match vs. CSB with a single-season career-best 410 kills. She is just the sixth player in SMU volleyball history to record 400 or more kills in a season. … Gardner also enters post-season play with 1,400 career kills, 81 kills shy of Diane Wood for second all time. … Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.) is also continuing her climb up the career kills list, boasting 1,292 to close to within 13 kills of Tracy Koertgen for No. 5 all-time. … Mate, who has posted 10 or more kills in seven straight matches and 19 times this season, enters Tuesday's match with 340 kills, just four kills shy of her single-season career high. … Mate and Gardner finished with 21 and 20 kills, respectively, against St. Catherine last Wednesday. It was the first time this season the Cardinals had two players with 20 or more kills in the same match. … Mate's 21 kills were also her most since recording 24 in last year's 3-2 win over St. Catherine. … Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.), just one of two SMU setters with 3,000 or more assists in a career, dished out 37 assists against Gustavus Saturday, giving her 797 for the season and 3,142 for her career. She ranks second to Amber Rajtora (4,578) in career assists. … Cherwinka has recorded seven 40-plus assist matches this season. … Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.), who has 265 kills to give SMU three players with 200 or more kills, leads the team in attack percentage at .305. … SMU has five players with 20 or more aces, led by Gardner with 44 and Kujak with 35. … … Six of SMU's nine losses have come against nationally ranked teams. … Twelve of SMU's 21 wins have been 3-0 sweeps. … The Cardinals' 3-2 loss to St. Catherine last Wednesday was their first five-set loss of the season (3-1). … With their 2-2 finish at the North Central (Ill.) Invitational last weekend, the Cardinals finished 2010 with a 13-3 record in the four regular-season tournaments they appeared in.

Saint Benedict Blazers News and Notes:
The Blazers have qualified for the MIAC Tournament every year since the conference went to the six-team format in 2001 — reaching the tournament title match in four of the last five years. … The Blazers come into tonight's match on the heels of just their first three-match losing streak of the season. All three of those matches, however, have come against nationally ranked teams — No. 11 St. Olaf (L, 3-2), No. 12, St. Thomas (L, 3-1) and No. 18 Concordia (L, 3-1). … Kayli Schumacher collected a team-high 15 kills against the Cobbers, pushing her team-leading season total to 319. She is one of five CSB players with 100 or more kills. … Schumacher is also hitting a team-best .273. … Kathryn Gados owns the team lead in assists with 1,069. She has accounted for all but 123 of the Blazers' assists this season. … Amber Wortz enters Tuesday's match with a team-high 368 digs. … Thirteen of the Blazers' 17 wins have come on their home court. CSB is just 4-9 away from home. … The Blazers have recorded 11 3-0 sweeps.