ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota volleyball team kicks off Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play against defending regular season and conference tournament champion St. Thomas on Wednesday. Match time is set for 7 p.m.
 
The Matchup:
Saint Mary's Cardinals (0-0 MIAC | 5-4 Overall) at No. 20 St. Thomas Tommies (0-0 MIAC | 6-4 Overall)
 
Last Action:
• Despite 22 kills from Alex Peterson (Harmony, Minn.), the Cardinals came up short against UW-La Crosse last Wednesday, as the Eagles handed Saint Mary's a 3-2 setback at Mitchell Hall in La Crosse, Wis. | Recap
• St. Thomas collected 3-0 victories over Northwestern, Wartburg and Loras, while adding a 3-1 loss to Cornell in finishing 3-1 during its four matches at the Cornell Invitational in Mount Vernon, Iowa, last weekend
 
Saint Mary's vs. St. Thomas — A Year Ago:
• November 2, 2013: Mary Nordick (Plymouth, Minn.) hammered out a team-high 10 kills and hit .421, but it was not enough, as defending national champion and fourth-ranked St. Thomas cruised to a 3-0 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win over the Cardinals at the Saint Mary's Gym | Recap
• November 7, 2013: Thanks to an impressive 3-0 victory over Concordia in the MIAC Playoff quarterfinals, Saint Mary's headed into its semifinal match-up with defending national champion St. Thomas with plenty of momentum — and a full head of steam. And that wave of momentum continued in the opening set against the Tommies. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, a Set 1 win may have given Saint Mary's a 1-0 advantage in the best-of five match — but it also woke a sleeping giant. St. Thomas rattled off three straight set wins to eliminate Saint Mary's 3-1 at Schoenecker Arena | Recap
 
Up Next:
• The Cardinals head to Ripon, Wis., this weekend to take part in the Ripon Invitational. Saint Mary's will face Milwaukee School of Engineering and UW-Superior on Friday, before squaring off against UW-River Falls and host Ripon on Saturday.
• St. Thomas also steps out of conference play this weekend, heading to Eau Claire, Wis., to take part in the UW-Eau Claire Invitational. The Tommies will take on UW-Eau Claire and Carroll on Friday, before facing St. Norbert and UW-Stevens Point on Saturday.
 
Scouting The Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2014 Roster | 2014 Schedule | 2014 Statistics
Wednesday's match against No. 9 St. Thomas is the third of six matches against nationally ranked opponents for the Cardinals, who have already faced No. 7 Colorado College and No. 17 Clarkson, and still have No. 13 Saint Benedict and No. 22 Augsburg on their schedule. … Wednesday's showdown at St. Thomas is the sixth straight road match for the Cardinals, who are in the midst of a 10-match road swing. Saint Mary's does not play at home until Sept. 24, when the Cardinals host Bethel in a 7 p.m. match. … Last Wednesday's 3-2 loss against UW-La Crosse marked the second time this season the Cardinals have been stretched to a fifth set—Saint Mary's beat East Texas Baptist 3-2 in its other five-setter. … Four of Saint Mary's five wins this season have been 3-0 sweeps. … Alex Peterson (Harmony, Minn.) tallied a season- and career-high 23 kills against UW-La Crosse last Wednesday. … Lex Krogstad (Chicago, Ill.), who earned all-tournament honors for the second straight weekend at the Colorado College Classic on Sept. 5-6, compiled a team-best 26 digs against UW-La Crosse. … Morgan Thomas (Palos Park, Ill.) chipped in a career-high 20 digs against the Eagles last Wednesday. … Peterson enters Wednesday's match against nationally ranked St. Thomas with a team-best 65 kills, three more than Macki Fadness (Eau Claire, Wis.). … Saint Mary's boasts seven players with 40 or more kills through nine matches. … Tayler MacVey (Dodge Center, Minn.) and Brittney Hanson (Janesville, Iowa) have shared the setting duties this season, with MacVey recording 170 assists and Hanson adding 136. … MacVey also leads the team with 11 service aces. … With her 26 digs against UW-La Crosse, Krogstad pushed her team-leading dig total to 146 through nine matches. … With their 2-2 showing at the Colorado College Classic on Sept. 5-6, the Cardinals improved to 21-6 in regular-season tournaments over the past two seasons. … 
 
Scouting The St. Thomas Tommies:
2014 Roster | 2014 Schedule | 2014 Statistics
The Tommies enter Wednesday's conference-opener against Saint Mary's having won two straight, three of their last four and five of their last seven. … This year's UST team already has as many losses (four) as in the previous two seasons combined. UST's matches to date include neutral-court losses to UW-Eau Claire and top-5 Hope, plus road defeats to Cornell and nationally ranked Wittenberg. … The Tommies' 3-1 loss to Cornell last Friday ended their program streak of 26 consecutive wins over Iowa colleges and universities. UST bounced back the next day with 3-0 wins over Loras and Wartburg. Wartburg was 10-1 and coming off a win over No. 2-ranked UW-Stevens Point. … Jill Greenfield and Kelly Foley were named to the Cornell College all-tournament team last weekend. In four weekend matches,  Greenfield had 45 kills, 55 digs and five aces, and Foley had 39 kills and nine blocks. … Taylor Lewis had 42 kills and 36 assists last weekend at the Cornell Invite, while Whitney Abrahamson had 75 digs, and Maddie Reese had 97 assists, four aces and 39 digs. … Foley, who has 1,415 kills on her career while hitting over .350, was last year's lone NCAA Division III player to make both first team AVCA All-America and first-team Capital One Academic All-America. … Greenfield has 1,183 kills and 1,533 digs in her UST career. She has recorded 51 career double-doubles in kills and digs, and UST is 44-7 in those matches. … Greenfield enters Wednesday's match against Saint Mary's with a team-leading 103 kills, 11 more than Foley. … Maddie Reese is the team's assist leader, dishing out 278 helpers in 10 matches. … The Tommies boast two players—Whitney Abrahamson (161) and Greenfield (146) with 100 or more digs. … The Saint Mary's match is the first home competition of 2014 for UST, which has won 40 of its last 42 home matches in the new Schoenecker Arena. … St. Thomas was picked to finish first out of 12 teams in the 2014 MIAC preseason poll of conference head coaches. It's the 14th year in a row that St. Thomas volleyball has been picked first or second in this MIAC poll. … St. Thomas has won or shared seven consecutive MIAC regular-season titles. The 20th-ranked Tommies have been ranked in the AVCA Top 25 for 108 of the last 109 polls. They play 10 teams this season ranked in the Division III preseason poll. … The Tommies have played in five consecutive regional finals, winning three to reach the national tournament's final four in 2010, 2011 and 2012. … The 2012 team went 40-1 and captured the national title. … The 2013 Tommies lost to UW-Stevens Point in the regional finals and closed with a 30-3 record. … Thanh Pham will work his 400th match at St. Thomas this fall in his 12th season as head coach. He comes into this week with a 324-70 match record, including MIAC championships and NCAA playoff berths in nine of his first 11 seasons. That includes a 102-9 mark in conference regular-season matches.