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MIAC Statistics
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| 2005 Record: 1-6 MIAC, 5-11 Overall |
| Last Week's Results: Saint Mary's 3, St. Catherine 2 / Details Hamline 3, Saint Mary's 2 / Details St. Thomas 3, Saint Mary's 0 / Details |
| Upcoming Events:: Fri.-Sat., Oct. 7-8: Saint Mary's at Border Battle, St. Peter, Minn. |
| This and That: The Cardinals' 3-2 win over St. Catherine last Wednesday was SMU's first five-game win of the season (1-4). … SMU also snapped its season-high four-match losing streak with the win vs. the Wildcats. … The Cardinals' 3-0 loss to No. 18 St. Thomas dropped their record to 0-4 vs. nationally ranked teams. … Megan Roesler (St. Paul, Minn.) collected 41 kills (3.35 k/g) and hnit a team-leading .257 in SMU's three matches last week. … Carolyn Kiefer (New London, Wis.) dished ouit 130 of SMU's 146 assists last week. … SMU's 30-23 Game 1 win over Hamline last Friday marked just the third time this season that the Cardinals opened a match with a Game 1 win. |
fits as SMU can't keep up with No. 18 UST in 3-0 loss
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Who's Hot?
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Megan
Roesler 41 kills, .257 % in 3 matches |
The Cardinals faced nationally ranked UW-La Crosse during the season-opening UW-La Crosse Invitational, and failed to win a game in falling 3-0.
Two weeks ago, SMU went up against No. 15 St. Benedict and No. 16 Concordia on back-to-back days, and managed to win just one game in losing 3-0 to the Blazers and 3-1 to the Cobbers.
Last Saturday afternoon, the Cardinals lined up against No. 18 St. Thomas — with the same results.
The Tommies jumped on the Cardinals early and never let up, beating SMU 30-21, 30-12, 30-25.
"St. Thomas is ranked No. 18 for a reason — they are a very good team," said SMU coach Mike Lester, noting that the Tommies entered Satuday's match coming off a 3-1 win over 11th-ranked Carleon. "We did not play that poorly – (St. Thomas) is just that good.
The losses (vs. Hamline on Friday and St. Thomas on Saturday) were disappointing, but at least I felt like we played better," continued Lester. "We weren't 'giving' away points like we've been doing lately — both Hamline and St. Thomas had to earn their points."
And earn them they did.
Hamline rebounded from a 30-23 Game 1 loss — just the third time in 16 matches that SMU has won the first game of a match — to beat the Cardinals 23-30, 30-25, 23-30, 30-23, 15-9, while St. Thomas led from start to finish en route to its 3-0 victory.
"I throught we did a much better job of getting out of the game playing at a higher level," said Lester. "The third game (of the Hamline match) was probably the best game we've played all season. Unfortunately, we just couldn't keep that momentum going the rest of the way.
"It's frustrating," continued Lester of his team's recent struggles. "This team has put together flashes of brilliance this season, but the consistency level hasn't always been there.
"Our goal right now is to keep striving to improve with every match. Despite the losses, I thought we did that over the weekend."