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After dropping a tough conference match against Saint Mary's earlier in the season in five-sets, the St. Catherine University volleyball team hoped to find revenge against a tough Cardinals squad at the UW-Stout Tournament, Friday evening.
 
The Wildcats got just what they were looking for this time around as they took down the Cardinals 3-2 (17-25, 25-19, 25-23, 20-25, 15-12) in the team's first match of the day. The win also came without significant presence of the usual Wildcat starters.
 
"We rested a lot of our starters and still found a way to beat Saint Mary's in five," said Head Coach Corey Phelps. "It was a great match for us. We played great defense and our first-year players had great touches in the match."
 
The Wildcats also put up a strong fight against a UW-Steven's Point team that was ranked No. 19 in the national poll this week. After taking the first set from the Pointers, the Wildcats continued to battle before falling in four sets 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-18).
 
"In the second match, we came out really strong in the first set and beat them," said Phelps. "We played awesome the whole time and were with them every step of the match. We managed to come up with some ridiculous digs on defense that we hadn't been making."
 
Nicole Pothen (Faribault, Minn.), who earned Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Setter/Libero-of-the-Week honors on Monday, came up with 40 digs for the Wildcats in the two matches. She now has 993 career digs and needs just seven to pass the elusive 1,000-dig mark.
 
Fellow senior Brittni Wangerin (Prior Lake, Minn.) chipped in 13 digs in the Wildcat loss to UW-Steven's Point and is just 10 digs away from that same 1,000 career digs mark. Wangerin also had a match-high 14 kills against the Pointers with a .323 hitting percentage.
 
After hitting .500 against Saint Benedict on Wednesday evening, first-year Zoe Barr (River Falls, Wis.) again saw significant playing time and made the most of it. The middle blocker hit .667 in the day's second match and recorded a total of 13 kills and three block assists on the day. Barr also had one solo and eight block assists of the team's 13 total blocks.
 
Stephanie Meschke (Faribault, Minn.) led the Wildcat attack on the day with 21 kills, 12 digs, three aces and four block assists. First-year Miranda Krenske (Faribault, Minn.) had the second-best day for the Wildcats with 14 kills, 14 digs, one assist, one solo block and three block assists.
 
"Things are really starting to come together for us," said Phelps. "Our comfort level with each other is really good right now and we're really looking forward to tomorrow."
 
The Wildcats close out play at the UW-Stout tournament tomorrow, beginning with a 10 a.m. matchup against the home team, followed by a tough contest against UW-River Falls at 12 p.m.
 
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