ST. PAUL, Minn. – Saint Mary's had everything going in its favor until a slump in the second spilled over into the third and fourth sets as the St. Catherine Wildcats defeated the Cardinals in four sets.
 
Paige Klug registered eight kills on 39 total attacks while Devann Clemens paced Saint Mary's with 12 assists. Lindsey Rossow and Kinlee Grattan each scored twice from the service line. Rossow lead with team with 25 digs in the match.
 
Rossow got the first set started with a service ace to throw the early punch. Three kills from Klug and two added from Brenna Bruchert stopped the Wildcats early run, tied at 12's. Grattan poured in two aces in the set and Rossow recorded another as the Cardinals took the first set 25-23 to take the one set lead.
 
A string of errors hurt the Cardinals in a result of recording just five points in the second set. Alison Wu, Kali Olson, and Bruchert each had a kill in the second set loss.
 
Olson had back to back kills to start the third set. The Wildcats responded on an 11 to nothing run nailing kills left and right going around the Cardinals blockers and the Cardinals were quickly in a hole unable to dig out of as they dropped the third set.
 
The Wildcats jumped to an early 6-2 lead forcing coach Amber Zitzow a timeout. Out of that timeout, Wu tallied a kill and Gretchen Bredburg and Bruchert got a monster block. Both teams began to trade off ball handling errors but the Wildcats came out on top after finishing on a 10-3 run to end the game.
 
The Cardinals fall 9-15 overall and 0-6 in MIAC play.
 
Up next, the Cardinals host St. Scholastica tomorrow, Oct. 26^th at 7 p.m. as it will be their annual Dig Pink Match for breast cancer awareness and will be raising money for cancer research.