WINONA, Minn. — The wait is over.
 
After closing out its regular-season schedule with a 2-1 loss to St. Scholastica on Friday, Saint Mary's post-season fate was stuck in a holding pattern, as the Cardinals had to wait for the rest of the conference teams to wrap up their final games on Saturday.
 
And when the dust finally settled, the Cardinals had a date — and an opponent — for their first-ever Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament appearance.
 
The Cardinals will be the No. 3 seed in this year's tourney and will get another shot at sixth-seeded St. Scholastica, when they host the Saints in a 6 p.m. matchup Monday at Ochrymowycz Field.
 
Saint Mary's enters Monday's showdown with a 13-4-1 overall record, having finished third in the regular-season conference standings with a 7-3-1 mark. St. Scholastica, meanwhile — which kept its playoff hopes alive with Friday's 2-1 win over the Cardinals and got all the pieces to fall into place in Saturday's final day of competition —  enters post-season action after finishing 4-5-2 in league play, while going 4-10-4 overall
 
In the other quarterfinal contest, No. 5 Augsburg will be at No. 4 Gustavus for a 2 p.m. contest on Monday. Augsburg is making its seventh consecutive postseason appearance and 12th overall, while Gustavus is back in the Playoffs for the first time since 2017 and the fourth time in program history. The Auggies are two-time Playoff champs, having won the tournament in 2014 and 2016, while Gustavus separated Augsburg from a three-peat with a Playoff title of its own back in 2015. The Gusties came away with a 3-1 victory over the Auggies in the 2021 regular season matchup in St. Peter on October 12. The two programs have never met before in the MIAC Playoffs.
The two quarterfinal winners will advance to Wednesday's semifinals, where No. 1 St. Kate's and No. 2 Saint Ben's will be waiting. The winner of the Saint Mary's/St. Scholastica game will head to St. Joseph for a 2:00 p.m. meeting with No. 2 Saint Benedict, while the Gustavus/Augsburg winner will head to St. Paul for a 2:00 p.m. showdown with the top-seeded Wildcats. 
Wednesday's two semifinal winners will meet on Saturday, November 6, in the 2021 MIAC Women's Soccer Playoff championship game. The game is tentatively scheduled for 1:00 p.m. The MIAC Playoff champion will receive the postseason championship plaque and the Conference's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Tournament.