Saint Mary's University Athletics

In fact, when the Cardinals’ head coach talked to his team following Wednesday’s final practice, he summed up the game plan in one word: Determination.

Match Summary Coach Lester Video

Which is exactly what the Cardinals were Thursday against the Saints:

Determined to keep the tournament jitters to a minimum.

Determined to play to the best of their ability.

And, above all else, determined to win.

Check, check, and check.

The Cardinals, making their first NCAA regional appearance in nine seasons, looked like a seasoned tournament veteran against Thomas More, bouncing back from a 25-23 opening set loss to beat the Saints 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-20, 27-25) at Washington (Mo.) University.

"I thought we came out a little slow in those first two sets, which certainly could be attributed to this being our first (NCAA) regional," said Lester. "But once we hit the third and fourth sets, I thought we played much better.

"Not knowing much about (Thomas More), you've got to give our team a ton of credit for making the adjustments that needed to be made," Lester added. "There really wasn't much (assistant coach) Tessa (Stranik) and I could do, they had to figure it out themselves, and they did what they had to do."

If Lester was wondering just what type of match his Cardinals would be in for against the Saints, the first set told him all he’d need to know.

The Cardinals couldn’t seem to do anything right early on, falling behind 5-1. But a 9-2 run – fueled by a service ace from Sarah Gardner (Rochester, Minn.), a pair of kills by Jessica Larson (Pine Island, Minn.) and a block by Larson and Brittany Cherwinka (Faribault, Minn.) – gave the Cardinals a 10-7 lead – a lead they would not relinquish until the Saints scored the final two points of the set to break a 23-23 tie and give Thomas More a 1-0 advantage.

And it was more of the same in the second set – only with a more favorable SMU finish.

Set two saw 11 tie scores – including 10-10, 11-11, 12-12, 13-13, 14-14, 15-15, 17-17, 18-18 and 19-19 – before the Cardinals took control, scoring six of the final eight points, punctuated by Larson’s sixth kill of the match.

Kills by four different Cardinals, along with a block by Larson and an attack error by the Saints, gave SMU an early 7-3 advantage in the third set – a lead they refused to relinquish. SMU would pad that lead to seven points, 14-7 – then hold off a pair of late Saint rallies that cut the margin to two twice (21-19 and 22-20) – to complete the 25-20 set three win with an ace by Cherwinka and a block by Courtney Runge (St. James, Minn.).

Thomas More took charge early in the fourth set, scoring the first two points and racing out to four-point leads of 8-4 and 11-7, before SMU rattled off four straight points to knot the set at 11-11. A kill by Gardner gave the Cardinals their first lead of the set – 13-12 – and a 10-5 run gave SMU what appeared to be a commanding 23-17 advantage.

Thomas More, however, had other ideas, rattling off eight of the next nine points to take a 25-24 lead. SMU bounced right back, scoring three straight points to seal a berth in Friday’s NCAA regional semifinals with a 27-25 victory.

"It got a little nerve-wracking at the end of that fourth set, but overall, I thought we played one of our best defensive matches of the season," said Lester. "Offensively, we were OK, but I felt like we won this match with our defense.

"We seemed to win every long rally - and when two teams are as evenly matched, it's those long rallies that are usually the difference between winning and losing," continued Lester. "This was a great win - I know that every team that is here has worked hard to get to this point, but I don't think there's a team here that's worked hard than we have."

Gardner and Mate – the Cardinals’ two All-MIAC First-Teamers – each finished with 11 kills to lead the way for the Cardinals, who improved to 22-9 with the victory. Larson chipped in 10 kills, while Cherwinka tallied 43 assists and Tara Rasmussen (Kasson, Minn.) led four Cardinals in double figures in digs with 19.

The Cardinals will now face top-seeded and host Washington (Mo.) University, a 3-1 winner over Webster in Friday’s second semifinal at 7 p.m.