ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University volleyball team, coming off a huge MIAC playoff-opening 3-0 win over Concordia on Tuesday, is back on the road on Thursday, traveling to defending national champion and top-seeded St. Thomas for a 7 p.m. semifinal match against the Tommies

The Matchup:
Saint Mary's Cardinals (24-8 overall) at St. Thomas Tommies (26-2 Overall)

GameDay Live On The Web:
Live Stats * Live Video | Video Preview | MIAC Semifinal Preview | Playoff Homepage

MIAC Playoff Schedule:
Quarterfinals: Tuesday, Nov. 5
No. 3 Saint Benedict 3, No. 6 Hamline 0
No. 5 Saint Mary's 3, No. 4 Concordia 0
Semifinals: Thursday, Nov. 7 - 7 p.m.
No. 5 Saint Mary's at No. 1 St. Thomas | St. Paul, Minn.
No. 3 Saint Benedict at No. 2 Augsburg | Minneapolis, Minn.
Championship: Saturday, Nov. 9  - 7 p.m.
Lowest remaining seed at Highest remaining seed

How They Got Here:
St. Thomas (26-2) and Augsburg (28-3) both finished the regular season with a 10-1 conference record to share the MIAC's regular-season title. This is the seventh season in a row St. Thomas has earned at least a share of the regular-season title, while Augsburg is celebrating its first-ever regular season title. The Tommies beat Augsburg 3-1 in their regular-season meeting, giving UST the top seed in the MIAC playoffs, while Augsburg is the second seed. Both received a first-round bye in the six-team playoff bracket and will host Thursday's semifinal matches. Saint Benedict and Saint Mary's, meanwhile, each picked up convincing 3-0 victories in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, as the third-seeded Blazers rolled past No. 6 Hamline in St. Joseph, Minn., while the Cardinals — seeded fifth — knocked off fourth-seeded Concordia in Moorhead, Minn | CSB-HU Recap | SMU-CC Recap

All-Star Lineup:
When the Tommies and Cardinals square off on Thursday, there will be seven First-Team All-MIAC selections on the court — including two-time MIAC Player of the Year Kelly Foley and Co-Defensive Player of the Year McKenna Reagan of St. Thomas. In all, the Tommies boasted five all-conference picks — Foley, Reagan, Sara Atkinson, Paige Brimeyer, and Jill Greenfield. SMU's Lexi Assimos (Northbrook, Ill.) was named First-Team All-MIAC for the second straight year, while teammate Alex Peterson (Harmony, Minn.) was selected to the 23-person squad in her first season as a Cardinal | All-MIAC Release

SMU vs. St. Thomas — Earlier This Year:
November 2, 2013: Mary Nordick (Plymouth, Minn.) collected 10 kills and hit .421, while Alex Peterson (Harmony, Minn.) — the reigning MIAC Hitter of the Week — added eight kills, but it would not be enough, as the Cardinals fell to the defending national champion Tommies 3-0 in the teams' regular-season finale at the SMU Gym.

Scouting The Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2013 Roster | 2013 Statistics | 2013 Schedule
The Cardinals are making their first MIAC playoff appearance since 2010 and their ninth post-season appearance under coach Mike Lester. … SMU's win over Concordia Tuesday moved the Cardinals' into the semifinals of the MIAC tournament for the first time since 2008, when SMU opened post-season play with a 3-2 win over Saint Benedict. … SMU's 3-0 win over Concordia was the Cardinals' 24th win of the season — the most in a season since 2000, when the Cardinals won 27 en route to their first-ever MIAC regular-season title and an NCAA Division III national tournament appearance. … The Cardinals have won 20 or more matches seven times under coach Lester. … SMU heads to St. Thomas on Thursday with a 12-3 record over its last 15 matches. … Thanks to their 3-0 win over Concordia, the Cardinals improved to 16-3 record on the road this season. … Alex Peterson (Harmony, Minn.) recorded a match-high 15 kills against Concordia Tuesday. It was the 29th time in SMU's 32 matches that the sophomore outside hitter has recorded 10 or more kills. … Peterson has eclipsed 20 kills in a match twice this season — collecting 20 kills vs. St. Olaf on Oct. 23 and a career-high 23 kills against Central (Iowa) on Oct. 4. … Peterson's 23-kill match against Central (Iowa) on Oct. 4 was the most by a Cardinal this season and the most since Kara Grant recorded 26 kills against Clarke on Sept. 30, 2011. … Mary Nordick (Plymouth, Minn.) and Kenzie Lind (Rushford, Minn.) have also put together career-high kill performances this season. Nordick notched a career-best 19 kills against Wheaton (Ill.) on Oct. 12, while Lind has recorded a career-best 17 kills twice — against North Central on Oct. 12 and vs. Concordia on Sept. 28. … Peterson heads into Thursday's tournament semifinal against St. Thomas boasting a team-leading 400 kills, while Lind (271) and Nordick (238) have also recorded 200 or more kills this season. … Lexi Assimos (Northbrook, Ill.) recorded 34 assists against the Cobbers Tuesday, pushing her single-season career-high to 1,160 assists. … Assimos, who has posted 1,000 or more assists twice in her four-year collegiate career, currently ranks No. 2 all-time with 3,226 career assists. … Assimos' 51 assists against UW-Oshkosh on Oct. 11 were not only a season high — one more than the 50-assist effort against Central (Iowa) on Oct. 4 — but just two assists shy of her career-best 53-assist showing against UW-La Crosse on Sept. 2, 2011. … Assimos has now recorded 40 or more assists 11 times this season and 31 times in her collegiate career. … After recording 502 digs as a freshman a year ago, Lex Krogstad (Chicago, Ill.) has shattered that mark this year, heading into Thursday's match against St. Thomas with a team-leading 540 digs — giving the sophomore libero 1,042 career digs in her two years in a Cardinal uniform. … Krogstad's 540 digs this season rank No. 4 all-time, 23 digs shy of Theresa Perrini's 563 digs during the 2006 season. … Molly Grover (Zumbrota, Minn.) recorded a career-best 10 digs against Concordia Thursday. … Krogstad is one of four Cardinals with 200 or more digs — Morgan Thomas (Palos Park, Ill. / 286), Assimos (277) and Jordan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn. / 262) are the others. … Wolfe equaled her career best with a team-best 16 digs against Hamline on Oct. 9. … SMU has recorded 158 aces this season — led by Thomas with 39 and Assimos with 38. … SMU's 31-29 Set 2 win against Concordia Tuesday was the longest set of the season for the Cardinals. … The Cardinals have won the first set in 21 of their 24 wins and 23 times in 32 matches this season. … The Cardinals' win over Concordia was their 14th 3-0 sweep of the season. On the flip side, SMU has been swept just three times this season. … The Cardinals' 3-1 loss to Macalester on Sept. 24 snapped their school record-tying 11-match winning streak. … SMU has lost back-to-back matches just once all season. … SMU's 3-2 loss to Wheaton (Ill.) at the Tiffany Robinson Memorial Tournament on Oct. 12 snapped the Cardinals' 13-match regular-season tournament winning streak. … SMU finished with a 16-3 record in its five regular-season tournaments this season.

Scouting The St. Thomas Tommies:
2013 Roster | 2013 Statistics | 2013 Schedule
With their regular season-ending victory over Saint Mary's, the Tommies locked up a share of the conference title — the program's seventh consecutive outright or shared MIAC championship. … With back-to-back 3-0 wins against Northwestern and Saint Mary's last week, UST extended its road victory streak to 19 dating, back to Sept. 2012. … St. Thomas, the defending NCAA Division III national champion, enters Thursday's MIAC semifinal against Saint Mary's having won 26 of its last 27 matches — and 61 of its last 63. … As a team, the Tommies rank in the top 10 nationally in attack % (.271), kills-per-set, blocks-per-set, assists-per-set and win %. … Kelly Foley and Sara Atkinson are the team's offensive leaders, hitting .385 and .373 respectively — both ranking in the top 20 in the nation. … Foley also leads the team with 306 kills, while Jill Greenfield (287) and Atkinson (213) have also recorded more than 200 kills this season. … The Tommies boast two players — Greenfield and Foley — who have surpassed the 1,000-kill milestone this season. … The Tommies have five seniors — All-America Paige Brimeyer, Mackenzie Piechowski,  Nicole Potts, McKenna Reagan and Katie Maher. Potts, Reagan and Maher all had older sisters that played for St. Thomas volleyball. … In coach Thanh Pham's 11 years, UST is averaging nearly 29 wins a season and has a 109-12 mark (.900) in MIAC regular-season games. … UST won its last 35 matches of last season and had an 18-match win streak earlier this season. … UST has won its last 30 Saturday matches. … UST is a combined 59-0 in three- and four-set matches over the last two seasons. … UST's 3-2 loss to Concordia on Oct. 9 halted a 33-match home-court winning streak — the longest among all 955 teams in NCAA volleyball from all divisions. … The Tommies are No. 4 in this week's AVCA national poll and have been ranked in the national top 25 for 41 consecutive polls. …  The Tommies went 14-0 last season against conference opponents and are 10-1 so far in 2013. … UST is 3-0 this season against the remaining three teams in the MIAC players — owning a 3-1 road win at Augsburg and 3-0 road wins at Saint Benedict and Saint Mary's.