WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota volleyball team entered Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against Hamline riding a nine-match winning streak.
 
And no matter how hard the Pipers tried, nothing they could do was going to keep the Cardinals from notching consecutive win No. 10.
 
Fueled by Lexi Barth's (Byron, Minn.) 11 kills and Morgan Thomas' (Palos Park, Ill.) 16 digs, the Cardinals wasted little time improving to 2-0 in conference play—and 14-1 overall—rolling to a 3-0 win over the Pipers at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
"It was a very efficient performance tonight," said Saint Mary's coach Mike Lester, whose team now boasts the program's second-longest winning streak—second only to the 13-match run Saint Mary's put together en route to a program-best 15-1 start to the 1990 season. "We served very well, our serve-receive was excellent—from start-to-finish I thought we played at a very high level, which was great to see."
 
The Cardinals scored the first two points of the first set and never trailed the rest of the evening, winning the opening set 25-16, before pulling away for 25-13 and 25-11 wins in the second and third sets.
 
Barth led the way for the Saint Mary's offense with her match-high 11 kills—three shy of her collegiate-best—while nine other Cardinals recorded at least one kill. Brittney Hanson (Janesville, Iowa) and Lillian Braun (Mantorville, Minn.) finished with 21 and 16 assists, respectively, with Thomas leading the way in digs with 16.
 
The Cardinals will put their perfect conference record—and 10-match winning streak—on the line on Saturday, when they entertain St. Thomas in a 3 p.m. conference showdown at the Saint Mary's Gym.