ST. LOUIS, Mo. — If the NCAA Division III Central Regional were a heavyweight title fight, most teams would step into the ring boast a good right cross, or a solid left hook.
Some might even boast a rather lethal one-two combination.
But few can match the hard-hitting, right-left-right knockout potential of the Saint Mary’s University volleyball team.
In fact, if
Jessica Mate (St. Charles, Ill.),
Sarah Gardner (Rochester, Minn.) and
Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wis.) had a motto, it would simply be: “Speak softly, but carry a big swing.”
The trio gives Cardinal head coach Mike Lester the luxury of hainv an arsenal of power hitters that cover the entire front row — Mate from the left side, Kujak from the middle and Gardner from the right side.
“When you look over our team, we really match up pretty well against everybody — because we’ve got such good balance,” said Lester, whose team kicks off its NCAA Division III Central Regional Tournament appearance on Thursday at 5:30 p.m., taking on Thomas More in one of four quarterfinal matches at Washington (Mo.) University. “Most of the teams we play may be dominant in the middle, or on the outside, but with our team, we are strong on the right side, the middle and the outside.”
And it’s a 1-2-3 combination that has gotten the Cardinals back to the NCAA national tournament for the first time since the 2000 season.
“This is such an awesome experience for everyone,” said Gardner, who, along with Mate, was named First-Team All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference this season. “We’re excited to go out there (Thursday night) and show what we can do.”
The trio has certainly shown what they can do this season.
Gardner comes into the regional tournament as the team’s leader in kills (358), while Mate is a close second with 324. Kujak is just 16 kills shy of the 300-kill plateau, and the SMU sophomore also leads the team with 120 blocks.
“It took me a little while to get going this year — I don’t know why, but things didn’t seem to really start clicking for me until the conference season started,” said Mate, who has been named to the All-MIAC first team each of the last two years. “But that’s one of the keys to this team, when one person isn’t at the top of her game, someone else is there to pick her up.”
Kujak agreed.
“This is a very close team and our getting her was a total team effort,” Kujak said. “We all feed off one another and if I’m having a bad set or a bad match, I know my teammates are going to step up their games.”
With seniors
Jessica Larson (Pine Island, Minn.),
Courtney Runge (St. James, Minn.),
Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.) and
Pam Stanton (Mundelein, Ill.) serving as the team’s on- and off-the-court vocal leaders, Gardner, Mate and Kujak have been able to focus on what they do best — swing.
And swing hard.
“Our seniors have done such a great job as leaders,” said Lester. “And that has allowed Jess, Sarah and Amy to not have to be in that ’stablizing’ role. They’ve been able to focus on their on-court game.”
Which is good news for Lester and the Cardinals — and bad news for SMU’s opponents.
“Coming into the season, my focus was to make sure I was hitting hard and hitting aggressive,” said Gardner, who earned all-tournament honors in all four regular-season tournaments the Cardinals played in this season. “With (the seniors) taking care of the leadership duties, it’s made it a lot easier to just go out and play.”
And play they have.
“Everyone has so much energy right now,” said Kujak as the Cardinals prepared for their 55-minute practice Wednesday. “We have nothing to lose — we’re just going to go out there, play our game and have fun.”