WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University volleyball team took the court last Saturday against St. Catherine, coach Mike Lester was shocked at the way his Cardinals played.

"It wasn't pretty, but at this stage of the game, a win is a win," Lester had said following a lackluster 3-2 win over the Wildcats. "Hopefully (the match vs. St. Catherine) was a wake-up call for our players."

If their' performance on Wednesday against St. Thomas is any indication, consider the Cardinals wide-awake.

Led by a 23-kill performance from Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.), the Cardinals handed the league-leading Tommies their first conference loss, cruising to a 3-1 (30-22, 21-30, 30-27, 30-28) victory.

"That was a huge win for us, no doubt about that," said Lester. "I told the team after the match that it was nice to finally see them play the way they were capable of playing again. It's been a long time since I had been able to say that.

"Everyone was feeling a little frustrated in the way we had been playing lately," continued Lester, whose team has won three straight, but struggled in wins over Macalester and St. Catherine, before putting it all together vs. St. Thomas. "It wasn't that we were playing poorly, we just weren't playing at the level we all knew we were capable of playing at."

Against St. Thomas, the Cardinals returned to that level.

Dingels hit .415 (23-for-41) en route to her match-high 23-kill night, while Tracy Koertgen (Crystal Lake, Ill.) chipped in 12 kills and Kirstan Rouzer (Comstock, Wis.) tallied 11 kills. Dingels and Rouzer also recorded four blocks each, while Dingels led the team in aces (4) and Rouzer posted a team-leading 16 digs.

With the win, the Cardinals improved to 5-4 in the MIAC — and moved one step closer to a spot in the conference's six-team post-season tournament. The Cardinals can lock up a post-season berth with wins in their final two matches of the season — next Wednesday vs. Carleton and Oct. 30 against Gustavus.

"The win over St. Thomas was certainly a huge step in the right direction for us," Lester said. "But it won't mean anything if we don't go out and finish the job against Carleton and Gustavus — and that's not going to be easy. Those two teams are playing very well right now, and we are going to have to put together two more efforts like we did against St. Thomas if we are going to come out on top."

• THIS AND THAT: The Cardinals' current three-match winning streak is their longest since they opened the season with four straight wins at the Elmhurst Tournament. … After winning their first 10 matches all by 3-0 scores, none of SMU's last three wins have been sweeps. … The Cardinals' final two regular-season matches are at home, where SMU has won five of eight matches — including three straight. … Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.) leads the team in kills (343), attack percentage (.342) and blocks (86), while Melissa Cowan (Algonquin, Ill.) is the team-leader with 1,081 assists. … Tracy Koertgen (Crystal Lake, Ill.) boasts a team-high 69 aces, with Kirstan Rouzer (Comstock, Wis.) collecting a team-best 352 digs.