Box Score  | GameDay Preview

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — For the Saint Mary's University volleyball team and coach Mike Lester, Friday's performance against Saint Benedict wasn't exactly the way they were hoping to kick off the weekend.

The Cardinals, squaring off against two of the top teams in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference on back-to-back days, could not get their offense on track against the Blazers, as CSB cruised to a 3-0 conference victory.

The Blazers used a 10-4 run midway through the opening set to break open a 10-9 CSB advantage en route to a 25-19 victory. It was more of the same in the second set, as Saint Benedict scored six of the final seven points to record a 25-20 win and grab a 2-0 advantage.

And set three was eerily similar to the first two, as the Cardinals rallied from a 9-3 deficit to pull within one, 13-12, only to have CSB outscored SMU 12-6 the rest of the way to complete the sweep.

Mary Nordick (Plymouth, Minn.) finished with a team-high 10 kills. It was the fourth straight match in which Nordick led the Cardinals in kills. Carissa Hahn (Hutchinson, Minn.) chipped in seven kills and a team-best 15 digs, while Lexi Assimos (Northbrook, Ill.) recorded 24 assists.

The Cardinals (2-2 MIAC, 7-6 overall) are right back in action on Saturday, traveling to Moorhead, Minn., for a 3 p.m. match against league-leading Concordia.