WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota volleyball team is back on its home court on Wednesday, hosting St. Olaf in a 7 p.m. Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
The Matchup:
• Saint Mary's Cardinals (4-1 MIAC | 15-3 Overall) vs. St. Olaf Oles (0-5 MIAC | 8-12 Overall)
 
GameDay Live On The Web:
• Live Stats * Live Video | GameDay Program
 
Last Action:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals split their two conference matches last weekend at the Saint Mary's Gym, falling to Saint Benedict 3-2 last Friday, while handing Concordia its first conference setback with a 3-0 win over the Cobbers on Saturday | CSB Recap * Concordia Recap
• St. Olaf: The Oles dropped both of their MIAC matches last weekend in Northfield, Minn., falling to both Concordia and Saint Benedict by identical 3-0 scores | Concordia Recap * CSB Recap
 
Saint Mary's vs. St. Olaf—Their Last Meeting:
• October 29, 2014 * Winona, Minn.: Any hopes St. Olaf had of derailing Saint Mary's drive to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament were blocked—literally. The Cardinals got six blocks from Mary Nordick (Plymouth, Minn.) and four more from Macki Fadness (Eau Claire, Wis.), as Saint Mary's locked up an MIAC post-season berth for the second straight year with a 3-0 victory over the Oles at the Saint Mary's Gym | Recap
 
Up Next:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals step out of conference play for the final time this season this weekend, taking part in the North Central (Ill.) Invitational in Naperville, Ill. Saint Mary's will face North Central (Ill.) and Coe on Friday, before squaring off against Carthage and Washington (Mo.) University on Saturday.
• St. Olaf: The Oles head to Waverly, Iowa, on Saturday for nonconference matches against Luther and Wartburg.
 
Scouting The Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2015 Roster | 2015 Statistics | 2015 Schedule
• With their 3-0 win over Concordia last Saturday, the Cardinals improved to 15-3 overall—marking the best 18-match start to the season in program history. … Last Friday's 3-2 loss to Saint Benedict snapped the Cardinals' season-high seven-match winning streak. …  Saint Mary's, winners of eight of its last nine, has dropped just four sets in their last nine contests—sweeping St. Catherine (twice), UW-River Falls, Ripon, and Concordia, while beating St. Norbert, Hamline, and St. Thomas—and falling to Saint Benedict—by 3-1 counts. … Sara Lind (Peterson, Minn.) banged out a career-high 15 kills to pace the Cardinals against Saint Benedict last Friday. … Lind was one of four Cardinals with 10 or more kills vs. the Blazers—Alex Peterson (Harmony, Minn. / 14), Molly Urban (Roseville, Minn. / 14), and Macki Fadness (Eau Claire, Wis. / 13) were the other three. … Peterson finished with a match-high 10 kills against Concordia last Saturday. … Urban's 14-kill effort vs. the Blazers last Friday marked the second straight match in which she had recorded a career-high in kills. Urban recorded a then-career-high 13 kills vs. St. Thomas last Saturday. … Fadness, who has recorded a season- and career-high 18 kills three times this season, leads the team with 219 kills. … Fadness is one of five Cardinals who have eclipsed the 100-kill plateau this season—Cassidy Bittle (Winona, Minn. / 149), Jenna Sullivan (Woodbury, Minn. / 143), Peterson (143), and Urban (107) are the others. … Peterson has also recorded an 18-kill match this season. … Tayler MacVey (Dodge Center, Minn.) notched season-highs of 29 assists and 17 digs vs. Saint Benedict for her fifth double-double of the season—one more than Sullivan. … MacVey posted 20 assists vs. Concordia last Saturday, giving the senior nine matches of 20 or more assists. … Brittney Hanson (Janesville, Iowa) posted a season-high 31 assists vs. Saint Benedict last Friday and added 15 against Concordia a day later. … Hanson heads into Wednesday's match against St. Olaf with a team-best 362 assists, 32 more than MacVey. … Hanson has recorded 20 or more assists 12 times this season. … Saint Mary's had a season-high three players with 10 or more assists against Hamline on Sept. 23—MacVey dished out a team-high 21 helpers, followed by Hanson with 20 and Lex Krogstad (Chicago, Ill.) with 10. … Maddie Hess (Lewiston, Minn.) posted career-bests in assists (17) and digs (12) en route to her first collegiate double-double against St. Thomas on Sept. 26. … Krogstad 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 320 digs through 18 matches and is second all-time with 1,923 career digs—259 digs shy of school record-holding Theresa Perrini. … Saint Mary's match against Saint Benedict last Friday was just its second five-set match of the season—the Cardinals beat Loras 3-2 on Sept. 14. … The Cardinals are 7-1 in both three- and four-set matches, while going 1-1 in five-setters. … 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 4-0 showing at the Ripon Red Hawk Invitational, the Cardinals have now gone 10-2 in their three regular-season tournaments this season. … 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 St. Olaf Oles:
2015 Roster | 2015 Statistics | 2015 Schedule
• With their losses to Concordia and Saint Benedict last weekend, the Oles saw their losing streak climb to a season-high nine straight. … St. Olaf, which opened the season winning eight of its first 11 matches, has not won since beating Grinnell 3-1 on Sept. 13. … The Oles have not played a four-set match during their current nine-game slide—losing six three-setters and three that have gone the maximum five sets. … Kathryn Johnson heads into Wednesday's match against Saint Mary's owning a team-high 169 kills. She is one of four Oles with 100 or more kills this season—Megan Grimes (143), Abby Carpenter (103), and Lexie Reed (100) are the others. … Kersten Bork and Reni Erickson have shared the setting duties for St. Olaf this season, with Bork dishing out 333 assists, while Erickson has chipped in 255. … Angela Fusselman has accounted for 34 of the team's 127 service aces through 20 matches. … Abby Black leads the team with 385 digs, while Fusselman (180) and Bork (149) have also eclipsed the 100-dig plateau. … Five of St. Olaf's eight wins have been 3-0 sweeps, while the other three have come in four-set matches. St. Olaf is 0-3 in matches that go five sets.