MORAGA, Calif. — After opening up the season on the road, Saint Mary's Volleyball heads home for their first two home matches of the 2021 Spring season. The Gaels will host Pepperdine on Tuesday and Wednesday, with first serve scheduled for 2:00 pm on both afternoons.
 
THE DETAILS
Pepperdine Waves at Saint Mary's Gaels
Tuesday, February 2 at 2:00 pm and Wednesday, February 3 at 2:00 pm
University Credit Union Pavilion – Moraga, Calif.
Watch Live (Tues.) with Charlie Walter | Live Stats
Watch Live (Wed.) with Charlie Walter | Live Stats
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gaels split their season-opening matches against LMU last Tuesday and Wednesday. In Tuesday's match, the Gaels lost in four sets, but they came back strong on Wednesday and upended the Lions in five sets. The win on Wednesday represented the first win for the Gaels at LMU since 2012. Chandler Cowell was the leader on the attack for SMC, putting up 31 kills en route to being named the Saint Mary's Bay Alarm Student-Athlete of the Week for the first time in her career.
 
MORE EXTRA POINTS
As if the third set wasn't exciting enough, the score would be pushed beyond the max of 15 in the fifth set. The Gaels had a three-point lead at 11-8 before the Lions clawed back to force a tie at 12-12. Elena Baka got the kill coming out of a tonight (yet another in a career-type night for her) to give the Gaels and advantage, but with the Lions getting the next two, it was suddenly a match-point situation for the Lions. The Gaels kept it alive and used an attack error to go up 16-15 and another to clinch the win at 17-15.
 
MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS
Saint Mary's out-hit LMU and put up an attack percentage north of 23% on Wednesday, a big improvement from their season opener…SMC also had nine aces in the five-setter, after only two in the first match…three Gaels had 10+ kills (Baka, Chandler Cowell, Jennifer "Boo" Laird), while Cowell added 10 digs and Makenna Joyce led the way with 25…Trinity Durfee had the most block assists on the afternoon with four.
 
ABOUT PEPPERDINE
The Waves have given trouble to the Gaels in the past, and they gave trouble to another Bay Area rival in San Francisco to open the season. The Waves won both matches against the Dons to open the season, losing just one set out of seven. Rachel Ahrens got off to a great start with 28 kills across the two matches, while three other Waves have at least 17 across the first two wins. In 2019, the Waves were 18-11 overall and coming into this season, the Waves had three on the preseason All-WCC team: Ahrens, Shannon Scully, and Isabel Zelaya.