ST. PAUL, Minn. — Mike Lester knew his Saint Mary's University of Minnesota volleyball team had a difficult task staring them in the face when they squared off against defending conference champion and nationally ranked St. Thomas in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener Wednesday at Schoenecker Arena.
 
What he didn't realize was just how difficult that task would be—especially after digging themselves into a 2-0 hole.
 
And, unfortunately for the Cardinals—despite a gallant effort—that 2-0 hole proved to be too much, as the Tommies handed Saint Mary's a 3-1 deficit.
 
After dropping back-to-back 25-19 decisions in the first two sets, the Cardinals got to work, outlasting the conference's defending champs 25-21 in the third set to cut the deficit to 2-1.
 
The Tommies appeared to have the fourth set under control, grabbing a 19-14 advantage, but the Cardinals weren't about to throw in the towel, rattling off five straight points to pull even, 19-19. Saint Mary's then scored two of the next three points to take a late, 21-20 advantage—only to have St. Thomas collected five of the set's last six points to seal the win with a 25-22 Set 4 win.
 
Cassidy Bittle (Winona, Minn.) recorded a career-high 18 kills and Macki Fadness (Eau Claire, Wis.) chipped in 13 to pace the Cardinal offensive attack. Tayler MacVey (Dodge Center, Minn.) and Brittney Hansen (Janesville, Iowa) each finished with 23 assists, with Lex Krogstad (Chicago, Ill.) and Kenzie Lind (Rushford, Minn.) tallying 19 and 13 digs, respectively.
 
Kelly Foley and Jill Greenfield finished with 12 and 10 kills, respectively, for the Tommies (1-0 MIAC, 7-4 overall), with Whitney Lloyd dishing out 24 assists and Whitney Abrahamson adding 16 digs.
 
The Cardinals (0-1 MIAC, 5-5 overall) head to Ripon, Wis., this weekend to take part in the Ripon Invitational. Saint Mary's will face Milwaukee School of Engineering and UW-Superior on Friday, before squaring off against UW-River Falls and host Ripon on Saturday.