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| 2006 Records: 2-6 MIAC, 6-12 Overall |
| Recent Results: Carleton 3, Saint Mary's 0 / Details |
| Upcoming Events: Mon., Oct. 9: SMU at Winona State, 7 p.m. Wed., Oct. 11: SMU at Augsburg, 7 p.m. UM-Morris Tournament Fri., Oct. 13: SMU vs. Crown, 7 p.m. Sat., Oct. 14: SMU vs. Northwestern, 2 p.m. Sat., Oct. 14: SMU vs. UM-Morris, 4 p.m. |
| Cardinal News and Notes: The Cardinals dropped their second straight 3-0 decision in their loss to Carleton on Wednesday. … SMU's match vs. Carleton was the fourth time in the last 12 days that SMU has faced a nationally ranked team (No. 4 Concordia, No. 6 St. Thomas and No. 23 Saint Benedict were the other three). … Theresa Perrini (Fairway, Kan.) boasts a team-leading 364 digs and is one of five SMU players with more than 100 digs. The SMU sophomore also ranks third in the MIAC in digs, averaging 6.46 digs/game. … With Wednesday's loss to Carleton, the Cardinals fell to 1-7 in three-game matches. … Three of SMU's six wins have been by 3-2 decisions. |
number as No. 22 Carleton rolls to 3-0 MIAC win
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Theresa
Perrini 16 digs vs. Carleton |
After all, he didn't have to face the Knights again this season.
Or the Tommies.
Or the Cobbers.
Or the Blazers.
In a span of 12 days, the Cardinals have faced six MIAC schools, four of which — Saint Benedict, Concordia, St. Thomas and Wednesday's opponent, Carleton — are currently ranked in the AVCA Top 25.
Talk about trying to maneuver through an MIAC minefield.
"It's been a tough stretch, no question about that," said Lester, whose Cardinals did manage to sandwich wins vs. St. Catherine (3-0) and Hamline (3-2) between losses to Saint Benedict (3-1), Concordia (3-0), St. Thomas (3-0) and Carleton over the past 12 days. "We've faced some very good teams during this stretch, and sometimes I have to remind myself of that.
"As a (coaching) staff, our expectations of this team are such that we expect to be able to compete against every team we face," Lester continued. "But when you are facing four nationally ranked teams — not to mention a non-ranked team that was second in the conference standings (Hamline) — in a short span like that, it takes its toll.
"The other thing is, while I'm not about to use it as an excuse, we're putting a very young team on the floor — and young teams are going to make mistakes and have off-nights."
And Wednesday was just that — an off night.
The Cardinals never even got out of the starting blocks against the high-powered Knights. Carleton scored the first two points of Game 1 and never looked back, leading 15-5 before scoring 15 of the game's final 27 points to win 30-17. SMU got a kill from Molli Dant (Forest City, Iowa) to start Game 2, but from there it was all Carleton, as the Knights scored the next five points and coasted to the 30-19 win.
The Cardinals matched the Knights point-for-point early in Game 3, holding leads of 2-1, 4-2 and 5-3, before Carleton tallied seven of the next 12 points to tie the game, 10-10. And once the Knights pulled even, it didn't take long for them to pull away, as they used a 10-5 run to make it a 20-15 game and then closed out the match with a game-ending 10-4 run.
"We just did not show up ready to play," said Lester, whose team dropped it second straight 3-0 decision and fell to 2-6 in the MIAC and 6-12 overall. "If you would have told me before that match that we would hold a team like Carleton to a .176 hitting percentage — which we did — I would have felt pretty good about our chances.
"The problem was, we missed 12 serves and we gave up 13 aces — that's 25 free points we just gave to (Carleton)," added Lester. "Overall, our performance was a bit of a disappointment, but we've got to put it behind us and get ready for Monday (at Winona State)."