MORAGA, Calif. – Three NCAA Tournament opponents and six games in Utah to open the year, highlight the beginning of the 2019 Saint Mary's women's volleyball season.
 
The Gaels' 2019 campaign will begin on August 30 when they head to Salt Lake City to compete in the Utah Volleyball Classic for the second-consecutive year. There, they will take on three teams who competed in the 2018 NCAA Tournament, including: Utah, Cal Poly, and Kentucky. Utah won their first game of the tourney in Provo last year before falling to host, BYU. SMC defeated the Utes 3-2 when they met in Utah last season while their Pac-12 opponent was ranked 19th in the nation. Saint Mary's second opponent of the season will be a Cal Poly team who finished 2018 ranked 22nd in the country and made it to the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Then, the Gaels will face off against Kentucky who finished 10th in the national poll last year and made it three games deep into the postseason before falling to National Champion runner-up, Nebraska in Minneapolis.
 
Five days later, SMC will return to the Beehive State for the Thunderbird Classic. The Gaels will square off with host, Southern Utah on September 5 at 6:30 p.m. MT before facing Boise State and Middle Tennessee on Friday and Saturday respectively. Saint Mary's defeated Southern Utah 3-2 in 2018, but have not faced Boise State since 2012 (W, 3-0) and Middle Tennessee since 2016 (W, 3-1).
 
The Gaels will then return home to co-host a tournament with San Francisco, including three games in Moraga and their home opener on September 13 against Cornell. The Gaels have played the Big Red just two times dating back to 1997 and they are undefeated during that time. The last time that the two schools faced off was in 2007 and SMC swept the match, 3-0. SMC will then face Utah State the following day to close out the tourney.
 
The Gaels' last two non-conference matches of 2019 will come on September 19 and 21 where they will face Cal in back-to-back contests. The first match will take place at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley and then McKeon Pavilion on the 21st. Saint Mary's defeated Cal 3-0 in 2018, recording their first sweep of the Golden Bears since 1998 and their first victory since 2004.
 
SMC will open West Coast Conference Play on September 27 when they host Pacific at 7:00 p.m. The Gaels swept the season series against the Tigers in 2018. In fact, Saint Mary's went 6-0 against their first three WCC opponents a year ago as they head to Santa Clara on October 1 and host San Diego two days later. Last season, SMC first defeated the Toreros on September 20 (3-2) when they were ranked No. 24. USD finished the year ranked 20th and reached the third round of the NCAA Tournament, defeating No. 13 Cal Poly and No. 17 Wisconsin along the way.
 
Then, the Gaels will host the defending WCC Champs (BYU) on October 5 at 1:00 p.m. The Cougars finished 2018 ranked fourth in the nation and were ranked as high as No. 1 for the majority of the season. They made it all the way to the semifinal in Minneapolis where they were swept by Stanford who went on to win the title. SMC took the Cougars down to the wire on November 15 at home last year, dropping the first two sets 25-23, then taking the third 26-24 before falling in the fourth 25-16.
 
Saint Mary's will then hit the road for a pair of matches against Gonzaga and Portland before returning to the Bay Area for four contests, their longest homestand of the year. Over the course of two weeks, SMC will host LMU, Pepperdine (both NCAA Tournament teams), Santa Clara, and San Francisco.
 
The Gaels will then split the next two weeks at home and away before heading out on a four-match road trip to end the regular season. During that stretch, they will face Pepperdine, LMU, Pacific, and San Francisco respectively.
 
For the full 2019 Saint Mary's volleyball schedule, click here. To purchase season and single-game tickets, click here.
 
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