For the last six months, much of the conversation has been about what the University of Incarnate Word volleyball team has gone without or has gone through.

The Cardinals didn’t have a traditional season, playing in the spring instead of the fall because of a coronavirus pandemic. They played before limited crowds, endured weekly testing and were without players because of safety protocols.

The inconveniences were an afterthought on Saturday as the players celebrated at midcourt at the McDermott Center. Incarnate Word was postseason-bound.

Playing with poise and purpose from start to finish, the Cardinals rolled past McNeese State 25-15, 25-23, 25-17 in a win-or-go-home contest and secured the final spot in the Southland Conference tournament.

Incarnate Word, winner of two straight and four of its last five matches, is scheduled to play Houston Baptist at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the opening round of the SLC tournament in Corpus Christi. It will be the second meeting between the teams this season. Houston Baptist won in four sets on March 4.

“I really wanted it for this team, just to clinch a spot in the tournament,” Incarnate Word junior outside hitter Chase Jackson said. “(All the protocols we went through) was definitely worth it. I just think we wanted it more at the end of the day. We just stepped on the gas and kept going.”

McNeese State (5-7) was unable to keep up.

“In a season there’s always an excuse, there’s always adversity that you have to go through. But it’s just focusing on volleyball and what we can control, which is our effort and our attitude, and I think we really showed that today.”

Incarnate Word freshman outside hitter annamarie alvarez

The Cardinals (6-8 overall, 6-6 in conference) used balanced and efficient attacking, hitting .255 and finishing with five players with at least five kills. Setters Natalie Martin and Pilar Gonzaba led the way, with Martin earning 18 assists and Gonzaba adding 11.

Bethany Clapp had a team-high eight kills, Jackson and Jacqueline Arrington each had seven, Annamarie Alvarez tallied six and Allison Palmi had five. Even libero Macy Sumrall had three kills, including a diving dig that sailed over the net and fell harmlessly for the clinching point in the second set.

Defense, though, was the difference. Incarnate Word collected 13 blocks and limited McNeese State to a .069 hitting percent. Arrington had three blocks, Alvarez had 2 1/2 and Jackson notched 1 1/2. Sumrall had a team-best 13 digs.

“We talked a lot about what we needed to do and we definitely put it into play,” said Palmi, who had a .417 hitting percentage, seven digs and two aces. “Our defense was amazing and that set the tone.”

With their offense and defensively clicking at high rates, the Cardinals even prevailed when things weren’t going smoothly. They overcame a 22-20 deficit in the second set by reeling off five of the final six points. In the third frame, they rebounded from an early four-point deficit, then broke a 12-12 tie by scoring 13 of the final 18 points.

  “In a season there’s always an excuse, there’s always adversity that you have to go through,” Alvarez said. “But it’s just focusing on volleyball and what we can control, which is our effort and our attitude, and I think we really showed that today. We’ve really grown as a team and learned not to take our foot off the gas pedal. At the beginning of the season, we maybe would’ve lost that third set once they started pushing back. It’s just accepting they’re going to do good things and return it back.”

terrence@terrencesports.com

Twitter: @sa_terrence1