ST. PETER, Minn. — It should come as  no surprise that the Saint Mary's University volleyball team dropped the first set of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against Gustavus Saturday afternoon.
 
It should also come as no surprise that the conference match went the maximum five sets — or that the Cardinals would come away victorious.
 
For the third time in their last four matches, the Cardinals made the most of that fifth set, outlasting the Gusties 15-13 en route to a 3-2 victory — extending their winning streak to five straight.
 
Saint Mary's, which has not lost since opening the season with a 3-0 setback against Augsburg on March 27, has not been quick out of the gate this season — and Saturday was no exception.
 
For the fifth time in six matches, the Cardinals dropped Set 1, falling to the Gusties 25-18 — only to rebound with back-to-back wins in the second and third sets to grab a 2-1 lead. SMU beat the Gusties handily in the second set, 25-17, before outlasting GAC 27-25 in the third.
 
Gustavus regained the momentum with a 25-15 win in the fourth set, but it would be the Cardinals who prevailed in the winner-take-all fifth set, scoring the final two points — including a match-clinching kill by Rachel Kedl (Lamberton, Minn.) — to seal their fifth straight win.
 
Linnaea Wallis (Dresser, Wis.) — coming off a career-high 30 kills in Saint Mary's 3-1 win over Hamline on Wednesday — led the Cardinals with 19 kills, while Coral Anderson (Rogers, Minn.) chipped in 15 kills. Mandy Schmidt (Mitchell, S.D.) equaled her career high with 47 assists, and DeJaye Baab (Wabasha, Minn.) and Wallis delivered 27 and 26 digs, respectively. The 19-kill, 26-dig effort by Wallis was her fifth straight double-double, while Schmidt added her second assist-dig double-double with 47 helpers and 12 digs.
 
The Cardinals (5-1 overall) are back in action on Monday, hosting Saint Benedict in a 7 p.m. conference match — the final home match of the season for Saint Mary's.