MORAGA, Calif. — With a great crowd on hand inside University Credit Union Pavilion, Saint Mary's Volleyball came out strong against No. 23 San Diego. The Gaels even stunned the Toreros, much to the delight of their home crowd, by taking the first set. In what would be a tightly contested match throughout, Saint Mary's and USD traded blows back and forth, but ultimately San Diego was too much to handle in a four-set win with scores of 25-22, 23-25, 16-25, 22-25. San Diego scores their 20^th win on the year and is 14-2 in WCC play while the Gaels drop to 14-11 (8-8).
 
EARLY EDGE
Not many people around the country probably had their eyes on an upset when the night began, but Saint Mary's looked hungry to change that. Their defense in the first set forced San Diego in a bevy of errors, as the Toreros looked out of sync. Down 16-12, the tides turned in favor of the home team with five-straight points to put the Gaels up 17-16. Chandler Cowell was serving and she did it all, with an ace and a kill to rowdy up the crowd. Ashley Reed played large as well, with an ace of her own late in the set that put the Gaels up 22-19. The Saint Mary's block got rolling thanks to Cowell that set SMC up with set point, and Kristen Erland slammed it home to close out the opening 25-22 set one win.
 
BOTH TEAMS STAY SHARP
While the Gaels ultimately dropped the next three sets, both teams continued to stay strong on their attack. San Diego never hit below .400 in the final three sets of the night, while Saint Mary's endured a rough third set to hit .312 in both the second and fourth sets. No Gaels had more than three attack errors on the night, and every Gael who took at least 14 swing was over .235. Despite the efficient percentage from Saint Mary's, they fell for just the second time this season when hitting over .250. Part of that had to do with the discrepancy in kills, where the Gaels had 48 but San Diego had 70.
 
NEARLY HANGING ON
It came down the wire, as Saint Mary's almost forced a decisive fifth set on Thursday night. SMC raced out to an 8-2 lead with Kelsey Knudsen back to serve (her 21 digs were one off of her career-best) and Jennifer "Boo" Laird showed out with a block and a kill. San Diego chipped away at that deficit but never could pull even with the Gaels until a service ace from Kylie Pries made it 20-20 late in the set. Cowell recorded a kill to put the Gaels up, but then San Diego rattled off three-straight points to put the Gaels on the brink. The 13^th kill from Hawley Harrer was not enough to win it, however, as San Diego closed out the win on consecutive kills.
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's honor its senior class on Saturday at 1:00 pm as they welcome in No. 4 BYU to Moraga. Senior Day festivities will begin prior to first serve, as the Gaels play their final weekend game of the season.
 
#GaelsRise – Single game tickets are on sale now for the remainder of the 2021 season. Grab your tickets HERE!