VB | Gaels Roll Over Miami In Home Opener
9/7/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
MORAGA, Calif. -- Nobody expected an early night Friday when the Saint Mary's volleyball team hosted previously unbeaten Miami at McKeon Pavilion.
Perhaps the Gaels had dinner plans, because they didn't waste a whole lot of time in dealing the Hurricanes their first defeat of the season.
An all-around solid performance yielded tremendous results as Saint Mary's scored a 25-14, 25-18, 25-23 victory over Miami in the Gaels' first home match of the 2013 season.
The Gaels owned the stat sheet, with Kristina Graven registering 15 kills and Jordan Shaw notching her second double-double of the season with 12 kills and 10 digs. Kelsie Groot led Miami with eight kills.
Where the stats really tipped Saint Mary's way were the team totals. The Gaels (2-1) hit .351 as a team while limiting the Hurricanes (2-1) to just .129. The Gaels had more digs (38 to 34), assists (41 to 28) and blocks (14-4) on the night.
"We're happy to play well against a good team. It's always fun, first home match of the year, good crowd, great student support to come out and play well," Saint Mary's coach Rob Browning said. "I think (Miami) played a little bit better as we went along. I'm not sure we got better as the match went along. I think we maintained OK. We played well and overall we're happy with how we played. I certainly think we've got more in the tank. We could've done a little bit more and maybe been just a little bit steadier."
Saint Mary's started Friday's match like a house on fire, with the thunder coming from both the middle and the outside. The Gaels built an 11-5 lead, with kills by Natalie Loos and Dalas Dodd putting the Gaels in command.
That attacking prowess would continue throughout the set, with Saint Mary's hitting a balmy .483 as a team in the frame. The lead continued to grow towards the end, and a cross court spike by Shaw put the finishing touches on a 25-14 win.
In the second set, Miami kept the score closer throughout. Still though, Saint Mary's held the advantage nearly the entire way through. After tying the set at 2 apiece, the Gaels never trailed again in the frame. Again, it was solid hitting that led the way, with SMC converting at a .400 clip.
Putting the exclamation point on the set again was Shaw, who threw a kill down to end the period. Saint Mary's finished the second on a 6-1 run, with five different players scoring in the stretch.
In the third, Miami continued to keep things close, and the Hurricanes took a 20-19 lead on an attack error by Saint Mary's late in the set. The Gaels would take it from there though, with kills by Danica Mendivil and Graven putting Saint Mary's back on top and a block by Madelyn Hutson and Shaw finishing off the 25-23 win.
"I thought we played pretty well," Graven said. "We've been working on some things in practice like tough serving and digging balls and I thought we did a really good job of playing defense against them. It was a good night."
There won't be any rest for the Gaels, as they'll host Air Force on Saturday at 7 p.m. Momentum won't be in short supply, but now it will be up to Saint Mary's to keep the good times rolling in front of a partisan home crowd.
"We're looking forward to it. We have a lot of stuff we want to get better at and grow from this match," said middle blocker Natalie Loos. "We want to see ourselves grow in that next match and see if we can do the game plan again."
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