WINONA, Minn. - A narrow loss and a convincing victory at the St. Mary's University Sugar Loaf Classic highlighted the first day of the season for the Edgewood College volleyball team. The Eagles lost all three sets to the host Cardinals by the narrowest possible margin, but responded with a four-set victory over Luther College.

Edgewood College (1-1) was so close to taking their first match, they could taste it, but St. Mary's University kept victory just out of reach, sweeping the Eagles 25-23, 25-23, 25-23. The first set featured 10 ties and five lead changes. In the second set, Edgewood College rallied from a 22-16 deficit behind five straight service points from Lindsey Swansby to tie the match at 22-22. However, St. Mary's scored the next two points and won the set on an assisted block from Mary Nordick and Molly Grover.

The Eagles again played catch-up in the third set, finally tying the Cardinals at 20-20. St. Mary's then appeared to seal the match with a 3-0 run, but kills by Katie Wedvick and Mallory Palmer and an ace by Rachel Tesch tied the set again at 23-23. Ultimately, the Cardinals would score the final two points on a Lexi Assimos kill and an Eagle hitting error and claim the season opener.

Palmer led the Eagles with 10 kills, followed by Kaylin Wayne who had eight kills against just one error for a team-high .350 hitting percentage. Sam Himmelspach and Rachel Thomsen both reached double figures in digs with 16 and 12, respectively. Sarah Schuchhardt had a game-high five blocks, while Swansby recorded 31 assists.

In the second match of the day, Edgewood College bounced back to take a 3-1 victory over Luther College. The Eagles and Norse split the first two sets before the Eagles ran away with a 25-19, 20-25, 25-17, 25-12 victory. Palmer hammered home a match-high 20 kills and hit .432. As a team, Edgewood College hit .303 and committed just 12 attack errors. Wedvick chipped in nine kills and added a team-high five assisted blocks. Himmelspach led all Eagles with 20 digs and Swansby handed out 44 assists.

Edgewood College will return to action on Saturday with matches against UW-La Crosse and Simpson College. UW-La Crosse is 0-2 after losses to Luther and Nebraska Wesleyan. Simpson is also 0-2 having lost to St. Mary's and St. Thomas (Minn.).