Box Score  | GameDay Preview

ST. PETER, Minn. — The game plan was simple — win, and they're in.

Achieving said plan, however, was anything but simple.

Simple or not, the Saint Mary's University volleyball team got the job done Saturday afternoon, as the Cardinals locked up a berth in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference post-season tournament with a 3-1 win over Gustavus at Gus Young Court.

With the victory, the Cardinals locked up the No. 5 seed in the upcoming MIAC tournament and will face the No. 4 seed — either St. Thomas, Concordia, Augsburg or Saint Benedict — on the road on Tiuesday, Nov. 5.

The Cardinals had their hands full with the Gusties from the opening serve — sandwiching 25-22 and 25-23 wins around a 25-15 Set 2 loss to take a 2-1 advantage.

It appeared the Gusties would force a fifth and deciding set, racing out to leads of 13-6 and 16-11 in the fourth set. The Cardinals, however, had other ideas, outscoring GAC 9-3 to take a 20-19 advantage, then completed the come-from-behind, tournament-clinching win by winning five of the set's final seven points for a 25-21 victory.

Alex Peterson (Harmony, Minn.) — coming off a 20-kill performance against St. Olaf on Wednesday — led the Cardinals with 18 kills vs. Gustavus, while Mary Nordick (Zumbrota, Minn.) chipped in 10. Lexi Assimos (Northbrook, Ill.) pushed her single-season career-best assist total to 1,105 with 39 assists, while also moving past Brittany Cherwinka for No. 2 all-time with 3,171 career assists. Lex Krogstad (Chicago, Ill.) recorded 14 digs and Morgan Thomas (Palos Park, Ill.) chipped in 10.

Becca Woodstra and Kellie Nett recorded 16 and 15 kills, respectively, and Rachel Arnold finished with 53 assists and Paige Breneman tallied 29 digs in the losing effort for Gustavus.

The Cardinals, who improve to 6-4 in conference play and 23-7 overall — the most wins by an SMU team since 2000, when Saint Mary's finished 27-8 en route to their first-ever NCAA national tournament appearance — return to action on Saturday, closing out their regular season with a 3 p.m. conference match against defending national champion St. Thomas at the SMU Gym.