WINONA, Minn. — Nobody said it was going to be easy — but even Saint Mary's University volleyball coach Mike Lester probably didn't expect it to be this tough.

The Cardinals rallied from a 2-1 deficit to post a five-game, 3-2 win over St. Olaf last Wednesday that, while it may not have been their prettiest effort of the season, kept SMU in the hunt for the MIAC regular-season title — not to mention in the driver's seat for one of the six conference post-season tournament berths.

"This was a huge, huge win for a number of reasons," said Lester, whose team moved to 5-1 in the conference, one game behind league-leading St. Thomas. "First, it allowed us to keep pace with St. Thomas (in the chase for the regular-season title), and second, it helped put some more distance between us and the rest of that pack that's going to be battling for those (playoff) spots."

The Cardinals, who had not played since a 3-0 loss to those league-leading Tommies a week ago, showed some signs of rust early on against St. Olaf, falling behind 19-13 in Game 1 and never being able to cut the deficit to less than six in falling 30-22.

Game 2 was a mirror image of the first — only opposite — as SMU jumped out to an early 11-4 advantage, then scored six of the final seven points to win 30-23 and even the match at 1-1.

"That second game was the turning point in the match — even though we lost the third game," said Lester, whose team dropped Game 3 30-25. "We talked as a team before the game that the team that committed the fewest errors would win the match. In the first game, we had eight errors, they only had six. In the second game, we had four (errors), and they had 14. To me, that was the turning point in the match."

The Cardinals forced a decisive Game 5 with an impressive 30-24 win in the fourth game, then sealed the win with some clutch play down the stretch en route to a 15-13 victory.

"This was a great match from a fan's standpoint," said Lester, whose team moved to 16-4 overall. "But from a coach's standpoint … it was a little nerve-wracking."

Tracy Koertgen (Crystal Lake, Ill.) led the way for the Cardinals, collecting a match-high 22 kills and 18 digs, while also picking up three aces and three blocks. Kirstan Rouzer (Comstock, Ill.) and Ashley Danielson (Cadott, Wis.) each chipped in 12. Tessa Stranik (Eastonville, Wash.) dished out 49 assists, while Katie Christensen (Crystal Lake, Ill.) finished with seven blocks.

"We had some key individual performances," said Lester. "Tracy was phenomenal, as were Ashley Danielson and Lisa Engdahl (North Branch, Minn.). Ashley only had 12 kills, but she also hit .417, which was outstanding, and Lisa came in late in the fourth game and had some key swings for us down the stretch.

"This was a big win — we needed some people to step up, and they did."