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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University volleyball team entered Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest against Augsburg riding a season-high four-match winning streak.

The Auggies, however, proved to be the speed bump that derailed the Cardinals, as SMU saw that four-match winning streak come to a screeching halt with a 3-1 setback at the SMU Gym.

After a see-saw opening set, that included 10 ties, the Cardinals took control of Set 2, as Cathy Rennie (Pine Island, Minn.) served five straight points to give SMU a 5-0 advantage — a lead they would not relinquish in tying the match with a 25-19 victory.

That, however, would be the high point for the Cardinals, who could not get their offense back on track in the third and fourth sets. Augsburg built leads of 17-7 and 20-10 en route to the 25-17 win in set three — then equaled those 17-7 and 20-10 advantages in beating the Cardinals 25-20 in set four.

Mary Nordick (Plymouth, Minn.) recorded a team-high 12 kills and hit .276 to lead the way for the Cardinals, while Lexi Assimos (Northbrook, Ill.) dished out 36 assists. Lex Krogstad (Chicago, Ill.) led four players with 10 or more digs, finishing with 16, while Rennie had 12 and Megan Schulz (Andover, Minn.) and Megan Leisen (Kellogg, Minn.) each had 11.

Ashley Peper notched a match-high 15 kills and Micha Sater added 11 for the Auggies, who also got 41 assists from Emily McCourt.

The Cardinals (2-1 MIAC, 7-5 overall) are back in action next weekend, traveling to St. Joseph, Minn., for a 7 p.m. conference match against Saint Benedict on Friday, then heading to Moorhead, Minn., for a 3 p.m. showdown with Concordia on Saturday.