WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota's drive for a third straight win hit a bit of a speed bump Wednesday evening.
 
All that bump did, however, was force the Cardinals to put the pedal to the metal.
 
After splitting its first two sets with Macalester, the Cardinals took complete control, rolling to convincing victories in Sets 3 and 4 en route to a 3-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
The Cardinals were in complete control in the opening set, building a commanding 20-12 lead, only to have Macalester cut the deficit to one, 21-20, and knot the set at 22-22. Saint Mary's, however, rattled off three unanswered points to take the opening set, 25-22.
 
Macalester turned the tables on the Cardinals in the second set, outlasting Saint Mary's in a see-saw affair, 25-23, to knot the match at 1-1.
 
From there, it was all Saint Mary's, as the Cardinals took the lead from the opening point in each set and never relinquished it in cruising to 25-19 and 25-18 victories to seal the win.
 
Sara Lind (Peterson, Minn.) led the Cardinals' offensive attack, collecting 12 kills, with Brandi Blattner (Eyota, Minn.) and Rachel Kedl (Lamberton, Minn.) each chipping in 10. Lillian Braun (Kasson, Minn.) and Brittney Hanson (Janesville, Iowa) dished out 22 and 18 assists, respectively, and Carly Cronen (Kandiyohi, Minn.) finished with a team-best 20 digs.
 
India Medaris and Clara Baumann posted 11 and 10 kills, respectively, and Emily Bowler and Sofi Ascencio combined for 25 assists in the losing effort for Macalester (0-7 MIAC, 5-16 overall).
 
The Cardinals (5-2 MIAC, 14-6 overall) step out of conference play this weekend, heading to St. Paul, Minn., for three nonconference matches. Saint Mary's squares off against seventh-ranked Northwestern on Friday at 7 p.m., before facing UW-River Falls and ninth-ranked UW-Whitewater on Saturday at 10 a.m. and noon.