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Match Summary vs. Luther
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WINONA, Minn. — According to Saint Mary's University volleyball coach
Mike Lester, when a team is playing well, they make things look simple.
And if that's the case, Friday's opening two matches of the SMU Sugar Loaf Classic were as simple as they come.
In fact, if the Cardinals were feeling any ill effects from Wednesday's season-opening loss to Viterbo, they certainly didn't show it. The Cardinals looked to be in perfect health — and in mid-season form — as they dismantled St. Scholastica and Luther by identical 3-0 scores at the SMU Gym.
“What a difference (from Wednesday to Friday),” said Lester. “It's not that we played that poorly (against Viterbo), but we certainly played much better tonight.
“When you play well, everything looks so simple,” Lester added. “We did such a better job of running our offense and working within our systems — it was fun to watch.”
Maybe for Lester, but probably not for St. Scholastica coach Dana Moore or Luther coach Cindy Fredrick.
The Cardinals got off to a bit of a slow start against St. Scholastica, winning Set 1 25-23, before pulling away with 25-13 and 25-17 victories.
Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.) paced the Cardinals' offensive attack against St. Scholastica, banging out 13 kills while hitting a whopping .545.
Carissa Hahn (Hutchinson, Minn.) chipped in a career-high 11 kills, while
Jessica Mate and
Sarah Gardner each chipped in nine kills.
Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.) finished with 35 assists and
Tara Rasmussen (Kasson, Minn.) tallied 16 digs.
And it was more of the same in their second match against Luther, as the Cardinals opened with an impressive 25-10 Set 1 win and never looked back, winning 25-22 and 25-15 in the final to sets to seal their second straight sweep.
Mate led the Cardinals' charge against Luther, collecting a match-high 15 kills — pulling the SMU senior to within seven of the 1,000 career kill mark — while Gardner added 12 and
Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.) finished with 10. Cherwinka dished out 40 assists and Rasmussen collected 11 digs.
“I'm very pleased with the way we played today,” said Lester, whose team closes out the two-day tournament with matches against UW-Stout (noon) and Loras (4 p.m.) at the SMU Gym. “We did a lot of nice things out there — we had a lot of outstanding individual performances and contributions from a ton of people.
“Hopefully we can keep that going (on Saturday).”
