NORTHFIELD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota volleyball team plays its fourth straight road match on Wednesday, traveling to Carleton for a 7 p.m. Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown with the Knights.
 
The Matchup:
• Saint Mary's Cardinals (7-2 MIAC | 18-8 Overall) at Carleton Knights (4-5 MIAC | 13-8 Overall)
 
GameDay Live On The Web:
• Live Stats * Live Video | Video Preview
 
Last Action:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals rebounded from a disappointing 3-0 loss to Bethel last Friday in Arden Hills, Minn., with a come-from-behind, 3-2 victory over Macalester a day later in St. Paul, Minn. | Bethel Recap * Macalester Recap
• Carleton: In a crucial MIAC matchup with postseason implications for both teams last Saturday, the Knights came up empty, falling to Concordia 3-0 in Moorhead, Minn. | Recap
 
Saint Mary's vs. Carleton—A Year Ago:
• October 8, 2014 * Northfield, Minn.: Carleton may have entered its showdown with Saint Mary's with just one win in its first five conference matches, but the Knights had proven they can play with—and beat—the conference's best. Case in point … Carleton's lone MIAC victory was a 3-1 triumph over nationally ranked Saint Benedict—a team that knocked off the Cardinals 3-0 a day earlier. In other words, the Cardinals would need to be at the top of their game. And they were. Unfortunately, as good as the Cardinals were, the Knights were just a bit better—outlasting Saint Mary's 15-12 in the fifth and final set for a dramatic 3-2 conference victory | Recap
 
Up Next:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals close out a five-match, regular season-ending road trip on Saturday, heading to St. Peter, Minn., for a 3 p.m. conference showdown with league-leading Gustavus.
• Carleton: The Knights conclude the regular-season portion of their schedule on Friday, heading across town to St. Olaf's Skoglund Center for a 7 p.m. MIAC match against the Oles.
 
Scouting The Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2015 Roster | 2015 Statistics | 2015 Schedule
• Wednesday's match against Carleton is the third of four straight road contests to end the regular season for the Cardinals. … With their 3-2 victory over Macalester last Saturday, the Cardinals locked up their third straight MIAC Playoff berth. … The Cardinals head into their final two conference matches sitting tied for second place with Bethel at 7-2, two games behind league-leading Gustavus (9-0). … The Cardinals' 3-2 win over Macalester last Saturday was their fourth five-set match of the season—Saint Mary's is now 3-1 in five-setters this season. The Cardinals are 7-4 in three-set matches and 8-3 in four-setters. … Last Saturday's win over Macalester marked the fifth time this season the Cardinals have won after dropping the opening set. … Macki Fadness (Eau Claire, Wis.) led the team in kills in both matches last weekend, collecting 12 kills against Bethel and 15 vs. Macalester. … Fadness, who leads the team with 303 kills, has recorded 10 or more kills in 20 of the team's 26 matches. … Fadness, who has notched a season- and career-high 18 kills three times this season, is one of six Cardinals who have eclipsed the 100-kill plateau this season—Alex Peterson (Harmony, Minn. / 216), Cassidy Bittle (Winona, Minn. / 196), Jenna Sullivan (Woodbury, Minn. / 179), Molly Urban (Roseville, Minn. / 165), and Sara Lind (Peterson, Minn. / 114) are the others. … Lind banged out a career-high 15 kills to pace the Cardinals against Saint Benedict on Oct. 2. … Urban's 14-kill effort vs. the Saint Benedict on Oct. 2 was a career high. … Tayler MacVey (Dodge Center, Minn.) recorded a team-best 25 assists vs. Macalester last Saturday, while Maddie Hess (Lewiston, Minn.) chipped in a career-high 20. … MacVey's 25-assist effort marked the 12th time this season the senior has recorded 20 or more assists. … Brittney Hanson (Janesville, Iowa) has reached the 20-assist plateau 14 times this season. … Hanson notched her first double-double of the season with 29 assists and 10 digs against St. Olaf on Oct. 7. …  Hess posted 17 assists and a career-best 12 digs en route to her first collegiate double-double against St. Thomas on Sept. 26. … MacVey posted season-highs of 29 assists and 17 digs vs. Saint Benedict on Oct. 2 for her team-leading fifth double-double of the season—one more than Sullivan. … Hanson, who posted a season-high 31 assists vs. Saint Benedict on Oct. 2, heads into Wednesday's showdown with Carleton owning a team-best 460 assists, with MacVey close behind at 419. … Morgan Thomas (Palos Park, Ill.) posted a season-high 19 digs against Augsburg on Oct. 14. Thomas' 19 digs were one shy of her career-best 20-dig effort against UW-La Crosse on Sept. 10, 2014. … Sullivan has posted 10 or more digs in 17 of the team's 24 matches. … Lex Krogstad (Chicago, Ill.)—who had team-highs of 17 digs vs. Bethel last Friday and 21 digs against Macalester last Saturday—posted her first double-double of the season vs. Hamline on Sept. 23, notching 16 digs and 11 assists. … Krogstad, who equaled her career-high with 36 digs against St. Norbert on Sept. 18, has collected 460 digs through 26 matches and is second all-time with 2,042 career digs. Krogstad is just the second player ever to reach the 2,000-dig plateau and just 129 digs shy of school record-holder Theresa Perrini. … With her 19-dig effort against Bethel and 21-dig showing vs. Macalester, Krogstad has recorded 10 or more digs in 22 of the Cardinals' 26 matches—including each of the last 18 straight. … The Cardinals snapped a season-high four-match losing streak with their victory over Augsburg on Oct. 14. … The four-match slide was their longest since dropping four in a row early in the 2014 season. … The Cardinals' 3-2 loss to Saint Benedict on Oct. 2 snapped their season-high seven-match winning streak. … With their 3-1 win over St. Thomas on Sept. 26, Saint Mary's snapped a 14-match losing streak against the Tommies, dating back to a 3-1 triumph on Oct. 2, 2002—also on the Tommies' home court. … With their 3-1 victory over Augsburg on Oct. 14, the Cardinals finished the regular season 7-2 on their home court this season. … The Cardinals finished a combined 10-6 in their four tournament matches this season. … The Cardinals put together their best 19-match start to the season in program history this season, going 16-3. … With their 3-1 win over UW-Eau Claire on Sept. 1, the Cardinals are now 5-0 in their last five season openers.
 
Scouting The Carleton Knights:
2015 Roster | 2015 Statistics | 2015 Schedule
• With their 3-0 loss to Concordia last Saturday, Carleton remains one game behind Augsburg in the race for the sixth and final spot in the MIAC Playoffs. With only two regular-season matches remaining. Carleton is looking to earn its first postseason berth since the 2012—when the Knights lost to eventual national champion St. Thomas in five sets in the conference semifinals. … Saturday's loss to Concordia snapped Carleton's two-match winning streak—a run that started with its first victory over St. Thomas since the 2006 season. … Lucy Stevens enters Wednesday's showdown with Saint Mary's as the team's kills leader with 338. … Stevens is one of three Knights who have 100 or more kills through 21 matches—Faith Skinner (184) and Katherine Miles (151) are the other two. … Stevens also owns a team-leading .328 attack percentage. … Carleton boasts three players with 100 or more assists, led by Samantha Chao with 518. Caroline Duke (168) and Emily Tonogai (101) have also dished out more than 100 assists this season. … The Knights have recorded 122 service aces, led by Camille Benson with 34 and Stevens with 19. … Benson, who boasts a team-best 527 digs, became the school's all-time digs leader against Waldorf on Oct. 16 and enters Wednesday's match with 2,231 career digs. … Carleton owns a 4-3 record on its home court, while going 2-3 on the road and 7-2 on neutral-site courts. … Seven of Carleton's 13 wins have been 3-0 sweeps—the Knights are 7-4 in three-set matches, 4-2 in four-setters, and 2-2 in five-setters.