WINONA, Minn. — When Saint Mary's University volleyball coach Mike Lester looked at his schedule and saw that his Cardinals had to face Bethel, St. Benedict and Concordia in a four-day span, he knew it was going to be a tough road.

But not this tough.

Concordia had three players with at least 12 kills as the Cobbers handed SMU its third straight loss, 30-26, 30-20, 30-22, Saturday afternoon.

The Cardinals, who entered last week with a 1-0 MIAC record — having opened their conference season with an impressive 3-0 win over Augsburg — won just one game vs. the conference's big three last week.

After getting swept 3-0 by Bethel last Wednesday, SMU fell 3-1 to St. Benedict on Friday, then suffered its 3-0 setback to Concordia on Saturday.

"It was a rough week, that's for sure," admitted Lester, whose team saw its overall record dip to 8-9. "Despite the final score, I thought we played very well against Bethel, but we did not play well at all over the weekend (vs. St. Benedict and Concordia).

"We were a little unfortunate in that St. Ben's, which had been struggling all season, picked Friday night to put it all together — they really played a great match against us," Lester continued. "And against Concordia, we just didn't play well at all.

"We're right in games the whole way — we just can't seem to get the job in the end."

In last Wednesday's match against Bethel, the Cardinals were at 25-25 or better in each of the three games — only to lose all three (30-27, 30-26, 30-27). Against St. Benedict, SMU split the first two games, both by 30-26 scores, then lost the next two, 30-28 and 30-25.

So close, but yet so far.

"It's frustrating, because we put ourselves in position to win so many of those games last week," said Lester. "But for some reason, we couldn't finish. When it came to crunch time, Bethel had someone step up and get the job done — we didn't.

"I told the ladies after the match that we played at a very high level. The problem is, when the game is on the line, we are still playing at that same level — we're not rising above that and taking control.

"The weekend matches were the first time all season that we really did not play well," Lester added. "Now the key is how are we going to react to that. Hopefully we can rebound and get back on the right track this week."

* THIS AND THAT: Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.) finished with a team-high 39 kills in SMU's three matches last week. … Kristan Rouzer (Comstock, Wis.) and Tracy Koertgen (Crystal Lake, Ill.) each tallied 36 kills as the trio accounted for 112 of SMU's 152 kills last week. … Melissa Cowan (Algonquin, Ill.) recorded 125 assists and 10 aces last week. … The Cardinals' current three-match losing streak is their second of the season and their longest since the Cardinals lost four straight early in the 1999 season.