ST. PAUL, Minn.  — The Saint Mary's University volleyball team returns to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Friday, traveling to St. Thomas for a 7 p.m. match against the Tommies.



The Matchup:
Saint Mary's Cardinals (1-6 MIAC, 15-12 Overall)
vs. St. Thomas Tommies (6-1 MIAC, 24-3 Overall)

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Last Action:
The Cardinals are coming off a 2-2 showing at the Tiffany Robinson Memorial Tournament in Naperville, Ill. SMU beat Aurora (3-2) and North Park (3-0), while falling to UW-Whitewater (3-2) and host North Central (3-2). … St. Thomas, meanwhile, went a perfect 4-0 at the Simpson Tournament in Indianola, Iowa, beating William Penn (3-0), Loras (3-0), Nebraska Wesleyan (3-0) and Simpson (3-0).

Cardinals vs. St. Thomas — Their Last Meeting:
September 22, 2010: With 15th-ranked St. Thomas in town, the Cardinals knew it would have its hands full. Unfortunately, it was the Cardinals who brought more punch to the party, handing SMU a 3-0 (35-13, 25-23, 25-13) setback at the SMU Gym.

Up Next:
The Cardinals are right back in action on Saturday, traveling across town to Hamline for a 3 p.m. conference match against the Pipers. … St. Thomas is also back on the court on Saturday, hosting Augsburg in an MIAC match slated to start at 5 p.m.

Saint Mary's Cardinals News and Notes:
2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics | 2011 Schedule
Friday's showdown against St. Thomas marks the fourth straight match in which the Cardinals square off against a league-leader. SMU has already squared off against Concordia, Saint Benedict and Bethel — all three are tied with St. Thomas atop the MIAC standings heading into Friday's action. … Friday's match is also the first of four straight road matches to end the regular season for the Cardinals. … The Cardinals' 2-2 showing at the Tiffany Robinson Memorial Tournament last weekend marked the first time in five regular-season tournaments this year that the Cardinals did not go 3-1. … Four of SMU's last five matches have gone the maximum five sets. … The Cardinals have now played 12 five-set matches, going 5-7. … SMU improved to 6-1 in three-set matches with last Saturday's 3-0 tournament win over North Park. … Kara Grant (Peosta, Iowa) recorded a team-high 54 kills in the team's four tournament matches last weekend. Molly Grover (Zumbrota, Minn.) chipped in 36 and Carissa Hahn (Hutchinson, Minn.) added 34. … Hahn posted a career-high 20 kills in the Cardinals' 3-2 loss to UW-Whitewater last Friday. … Lexi Assimos (Northbrook, Ill.) totaled 134 assists, hit a team-best .424 (15 kills, 33 attempts, 1 error) and picked up 51 digs last weekend, earning the sophomore setter all-tournament honors. … Assimos has now been named to the all-tournament team in four of the five regular-season tournaments the Cardinals have played in. … Tara Rasmussen (Kasson, Minn.) owned a team-leading 71 digs and Mary Nordick (Plymouth, Minn.) chipped in 21 blocks . … Grant enters Friday's match against St. Thomas with a team-best 378 kills, leading six Cardinals boasting 100 or more kills. Nordick is second with 208, followed by Sabrina Bushlack (Mapleton, Minn. / 150), Hahn (131), Grover (101) and Kaylee Bunne (LeRoy, Minn. / 100). … Assimos pushed her team-high assist total to 849 last weekend, while Rasmussen is the team-leader in digs with 358. … Led by Rasmussen, the Cardinals boast three players with 200 or more digs and six with 100 of more. … Eleven of SMU's 15 wins have come on the road. The Cardinals are 4-5 on their home court. … SMU has won the first set in 13 of its 15 victories this season. … SMU's 22-20 Set 5 loss to Bethel last Wednesday was the highest-scoring fifth set in the last 15 years. … The Cardinals set a pair of single-match records in the rally scoring era in their 3-0 victory over Finlandia on Sept. 2. SMU held the Lions to a record-low four points in their Set 3, 25-4 win, while the Cardinals' 19 service aces were also a single-match record.

St. Thomas Tommies News and Notes:
2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics | 2011 Schedule
The Tommies enter Friday's match against Saint Mary's ranked No. 10 in the latest AVCA Top 25. … St. Thomas has been in the Division III rankings for 75 of the last 76 polls and a conference-best 105 times in the poll's history. … The Tommies have been red-hot of late, riding an 11-match winning streak — including six straight wins at home — into Friday's match against Saint Mary's. … Coach Thanh Pham's Tommies need one victory to reach 25 wins for the seventh consecutive season. … UST did not lose a set in its four matches at the Simpson Tournament last weekend, and are now 14-2 in three-set matches this season. The Tommies are also a perfect 6-0 in four-set matches, while going 4-1 in five-setters. … Kaitlain Wachter, Ashley Maher and Jill Greenfield earned all-tournament honors at last weekend's Simpson Tournament. … Kelly Foley leads the team with 337 kills and is one of five Tommies boasting 100 or more kills this season. … Foley is also hitting a team-leading .349. … Greenfield is second on the team with 269 kills, followed by Taylor Cross (236), Paige Brimeyer (215) and Nicole Potts (124). … In her first year as a starter, Maher moved into the national lead in assists-per-set and has surpassed 1,000 on the season. … Wachter is the team-leader in digs with 526, while Greenfield (352) and Maher (202) give the Tommies three players with 200 or more digs. … The Tommies have amassed a whopping 132 service aces this season, led by Greenfield and Kari Ann Nass with 28 each. …