ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – The Saint Mary's volleyball team traveled to Arden Hills, Minnesota for their second to last away game of the season taking on the Bethel Royals Friday night. The Cardinals battled the second ranked team in the conference and kept the three set match close.
 
The Cardinals opened up the first set collecting two kills from Kali Olson and a kill from Brenna Bruchert with an ace from Paige Klug to take the early 4-2 lead. The Royals proceeded to go on a 9-0 run. What got the Cardinals back into the match was capitalizing on the Bethel attack errors. Alison Wu and Olson tallied three kills on the short rally late for the Cardinals. They finished the first set with three service aces from Klug, Olson, and Bruchert. It was not enough as the Cardinals dropped the first set.
 
At the start of the second set, the Cardinals traded points with the Royals until taking the lead at 10-7 with help from Bruchert, Olson, and Wu which forced the Royals timeout. The Cardinals kept the ball rolling and took their biggest lead of the night at 17-10 after another great serve for an ace from Lindsey Rossow. The team began to let the lead slip away and allowed the Royals to sneak back into the set. Bruchert had herself a personal three kill run late forcing the match into extra points but the Royals battled back to take set two.
 
Down two sets, the Cardinals gave up the first five points of the critical set to fall early. Olson recorded the first three kills after trailing by nine and Kinlee Grattan added a service ace. The energy never dwindled as they found themselves in for a possible historic comeback down seven late. Bruchert caught fire with four kills in a row and Gretchen Bredberg added to the run with a kill of her own. Now only down 21-20 after trailing 20-13, the Cardinals did not give up and fought till the end of set three. The Royals took the game.
 
The Cardinals dominated in the serving category recording eight total service aces to the Royals four.
 
The Cardinals are back on the court tomorrow taking on the Hamline Pipers in the cities for a 7 p.m. game.