Match Summary

DUBUQUE, Iowa — After an up-and-down opening day during the two-day University of Dubuque Tournament, Saint Mary's University volleyball coach Mike Lester was hoping for more up than down during his team's Day 2 matches against Loras and Dubuque.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals got things turned around, as they dropped a pair of 3-0 decisions to finish the tourney with a 1-3 record.

"it was really an up-and-down weekend," said Lester, whose team closes out its season on Wednesday, playing host to Gustavus in a 7 p.m. conference match. "I thought we started the weekend out really strong (in a 3-1 win over Clarke), but then we ran into three very tough teams and just couldn't get it going."

After opening with that convincing 3-1 win over Clarke — SMU's second straight 3-1 win over the Crusaders this season — the Cardinals struggled in back-to-back 3-0 losses to St. Thomas and Loras, while their 3-0, tournament-ended setback vs. Dubuque was much closer than the final score indicated.

"We had our chances in that final match, we just couldn't finish the job," said Lester, whose team led Dubuque 25-24 in all three games, only to come up empty each time. "That's been a problem for us all year — we've hung right with most teams, but right around the 20-point mark, we just seemed to fall apart.

"This was a tough tournament, we faced some very good teams," added Lester, whose team fell to 10-18 overall. "We got some solid individual efforts, and in spurts, we played well as a team. We just didn't put it all together at the same time."