MABEL — Southwest Conference foes LeRoy-Ostrander and Mabel-Canton have battled at the top of the conference standings the last few years and that battle continued Thursday night.

The Cardinals, having lost a number of seniors the year previous, lost to Mabel-Canton 21-25, 20-25 and 23-25 in their season opener.

“We lost a great group of seniors last year,” coach Lisa Swenson said. “We only have five juniors and seniors this year, four sophomores and one freshman.

“We kind of surprised the coaches that were there and I think we surprised Mabel-Canton,” she added.

Chandra Riedeman led the Cardinals with eight kills with Krista Bunne adding six kills. Megan Grant tallied 20 set-assists.

Though Swenson was happy with how the Cardinals kicked off the season, she was realistic as well.

“We have a lot of things to work with,” she said.