The results on paper haven't been in favor of the St. Catherine University volleyball team during this Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) season. However, the Wildcats have competed against some of the top programs in the league, played close sets and come up just short. After recovering from a disappointing first set, the Wildcats battled for every point Wednesday evening, but couldn't close out a set win in a 3-0 (25-15, 29-27, 26-24) loss to Saint Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota. 

"The first set has been plaguing us lately," said Head Coach Corey Phelps. "We need to find a way to get over that. Sets two and three tonight were our best offensive sets in over a month. We're still improving – which is encouraging – but it's tough to see on paper how well we're playing when the results are the same."

As a team, the Wildcats outperformed the Cardinals with their best hitting performance of the season at .243 compared to .240 and matched them with four total blocks. In the second set, the Wildcats held a 21-16 advantage in kills over the Cardinals and tallied a .394 hitting percentage in the third set as opposed to just a .238 for the Cardinals. 

"The fact that we had a higher hitting percentage in the third set than (the Cardinals) shows that what we're working on in practice is paying off," said Phelps. 

After a forgettable first set, the Wildcats rebounded in the second set coming out with confidence hitting and taking a five-point lead at 18-13. The Cardinals continued to pull close to the Wildcats, but couldn't find a way to take the lead until going up 27-26 before closing out the marathon set at 29-27. In the third set, the Wildcats came from behind after allowing the Cardinals to build a lead thanks to a 5-0 run early. Despite evening the score at 19-19 in the third set, the Cardinals took advantage of a few Wildcat mistakes late en route to their fifth MIAC win of the season. 

Jana Christensen (Mankato, Minn./Mankato West) turned in her best hitting performance of the season with a team-high 11 kills and no errors for a remarkable .500 hitting percentage, while Megan Lindenfelser (Nowthen, Minn./Anoka) also came on strong for the Wildcats with eight kills, six digs and two block assists. 

Alyssa Besch (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) was also a flawless hitter for the Wildcats Wednesday committing no errors in her six-kill performance. The team's leading hitter this season also collected a block assist and two digs. Fellow junior middle blocker Zoe Barr (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) had her best blocking performance of the season with four block assists and four kills. 

Karsee Knutson (New London, Minn./New London-Spicer) set up the Wildcat offense with 16 assists and added six digs defensively, while Ashley Kahlow (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) had 14 assists and a service ace. 

Bailey Auseth (Wanamingo, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo) came in for the final two sets as the libero tallying a team-best 13 digs, while Shelby Rachel (Maple Lake, Minn./Maple Lake) had seven and two service aces. 

The Wildcats host Macalester College for their final home game of the season Saturday. The senior day match is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. in the Butler Center. 

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