SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Saint Mary's Volleyball has been one of the better teams in the West Coast Conference over the past few matches, having entered Saturday's contest with wins in six-straight sets. On the other hand, the Santa Clara Broncos had been one of the hottest teams for a while, with wins in four-consecutive matches overall. Something had to give on Saturday and it went the distance inside the Leavey Center, but Saint Mary's escaped with a five-set win over the Broncos, with scores of 25-21, 12-25, 8-25, 25-16, and 15-8. The Gaels improve to 11-8 (5-5) while the Broncos fall to 8-12 (4-6).
 
KEEP ON ATTACKING
The Saint Mary's attack continued to show signs of improvement in the three sets they won. The Gaels never hit below 23.9% in their three winning sets, including a whopping 57.1% in the deciding set (9 kills on 14 swings, one error). Kristen Erland came out of the gates hot, with five kills in the first set to pace all Gaels, but it was Chandler Cowell who led the Gaels for the third-straight match. She finished the afternoon with 13 kills and also added two block assists to lead the Gaels for the third time in a row since returning from an ankle injury.
 
SOMETHING CHANGED
After the Gaels won their seventh-consecutive set, the Broncos were able to flip the script and began to show strong signs of attacking on their own side. The Broncos limited the Gaels to just 20 points over the second and third sets, while the Gaels attack was just barely able to net a positive percentage. Meanwhile, the Broncos hit at .452 and an absurd .636 clip in the second and third sets, respectively. This put Saint Mary's on the verge of elimination heading into the fourth set, but the Gaels were not to be denied.
 
COMING BACK FOR THE COMEBACK
SMC and Santa Clara were tied 10-10 in the fourth set when the Gaels pulled ahead for good to close it out. Saint Mary's went on a 5-0 run, and an extended 8-1 run to lead 18-11thanks to a strong service run from Elena Baka (back from injury), three kills from Cowell, and consecutive aces from Jennifer "Boo" Laird. With Kelsey Knudsen serving, the Gaels closed out the set on a 4-0 run, and carried that momentum over into the fifth set. Santa Clara never led in the fifth set, and the Gaels earned eight of the final 10 points to win in five sets over the Broncos for the second time this season.
 
NUMBERS DON'T TELL THE STORY
Generally speaking, the final numbers from a match will explain who won, but that was not the case on Saturday. Saint Mary's trailed the Broncos in every statistical category, including kills, attack percentage, blocks, and digs, but found a way to emerge victorious. Ella Sandt set a career-high with 16 digs while adding 20 assists, and Knudsen also set a career-best with 10 assists on the afternoon. Sandt, Knudsen, and Alosina Thompson all had 10+ digs on the afternoon.
 
ELLA EXPLAINS
"This match was a fight from start to finish. It wasn't always pretty, but I am very proud of the grit and energy we showed today to come back and win in five. The fight showed a lot about our toughness as a team. It was an all-around good team win with lots of good defense, blocking, and swings." – Ella Sandt
 
KNUDSEN KNOWS
"This match was a testament to our team's grit. Santa Clara is a very good team, and they showed us that we had to earn every point we won. We fought back after digging ourselves into a hole in the middle of the match and it was truly a team effort to bounce back. I'm so proud of this team and the adversity that we overcame today." – Kelsey Knudsen
 
BROWNING BITES
"That was one of the greatest comebacks we've had in a long time. Santa Clara was dominating us in every aspect. After the third set, we talked about how we had an opportunity to turn this into an epic comeback and thee team took that and ran with it. Santa Clara is very good and better than when we played them the first time. Elena's return to the court helped inject some energy into our team." – head coach, Rob Browning
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's will put its three-match winning streak to the test next week when the host a pair of matches to close out the month of October. The Gaels first host Portland on Thursday, October 28 at 7:00 pm and wrap up October on the 30^th against Gonzaga at 1:00 pm.
 
#GaelsRise – Single game tickets are on sale now for the remainder of the 2021 season. Grab your tickets HERE!