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WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University volleyball coach Mike Lester knew his Cardinals would have their hands full Saturday afternoon.

After all, Concordia headed into Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against the Cardinals ranked No. 10 in the nation and riding a three-match winning streak — and having won its last eight matches by identical 3-0 scores.

And the Cardinals learned first-hand just how good the Cobbers were, as CC posted its ninth straight 3-0 victory, beating SMU 25-15, 25-23, 25-14 at the SMU Gym.

“(Concordia) is a very, very good team,” said Lester, whose team was coming off a 3-1 loss against Saint Benedict Friday evening. “We knew that if we were going to have any chance, we were going to have to play as well as we could, for as long as we could — and I thought we did that, especially in the second set.

“We just weren't as good as we needed to be in the first and third sets.”

The Cobbers jumped all over the Cardinals in the first set, using a 10-3 run to turn a three-point, 15-12 advantage into a 25-15 Set 1 win.

SMU gave the Cobbers all they could handle in the second set, leading 19-16, only to have CC rally to tie the set at 21-21, then score four of the final six points for the 25-23 victory and a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the third set looked eerily similar to the first, as Concordia grabbed an early 10-6 lead, built the advantage to eight, 20-12, then closed the match out with a 5-2 run.

“Give our ladies credit, they really came back and battled in that second set,” said Lester. “Concordia likes to terminate the rally on the first swing — like they did in the first set — but if you can make them have to take two or three swings, they are more likely to make a few errors, and that's what we forced them to do in the second set.

“Unfortunately for us, when they are in system — like they were in the first and third sets — there's no question they are a top 10 team in the nation.”

Sabrina Bushlack (Mapleton, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinals, finishing with nine kills, while Mary Nordic (Plymouth, Minn.) added seven kills and a pair of blocks. Lexi Assimos (Northbrook, Ill.) tallied 24 assists, with Erika Hurley (Chatfield, Minn.) collecting a team-best 10 digs.

Jenna Green and Katie Vohnoutka posted 12 and 10 kills, respectively, for the Cobbers, while Amy Sykora recorded 34 of the team's 36 assists.

The Cardinals, who fall to 1-5 in the MIAC and 13-9 overall, close out the home portion of their schedule on Wednesday, hosting Bethel in a 7 p.m. MIAC contest at the SMU Gym.