This Week in Gael Athletics | Feb. 22-28
2/22/2021 6:47:00 PM | Baseball, Cross Country, General, Men's Basketball, Men's Soccer, Softball, Women's Basketball, Women's Beach Volleyball, Women's Soccer, Women's Volleyball
Take a look at what Saint Mary's teams are up to this week...
TUESDAY
Volleyball vs. Portland, 2:00 pm (Moraga, Calif.)
Live Stream | Stats
The Gaels are back at home for a majority of the final four-plus weeks of the season, and they host Portland on Tuesday afternoon. The Gaels won in five sets at Gonzaga eight days ago and are starting to improve on the attack, with strong performances from Hawley Harrer on the road (23 kills in two matches with just two attack errors). Saint Mary's faces a Portland team with just one win on the year, coming against San Francisco last week.
WEDNESDAY
Cross Country, WCC Championships, 9:15 am and 10:45 am (Las Vegas)
Live Scoring
The short Cross Country season wraps up on Wednesday morning as the Gaels compete in the West Coast Conference Championship meet. The women will run at 9:15 am and will be followed by the men who compete shortly after at 10:45 am. Saint Mary's comes in with a lot of momentum, after the women were ranked #15 in the country according to USTFCCCA. Both the mens' and women's programs won the Jessup Invitational two weeks ago in their only race of the season, with individual titles being won on both sides.
Volleyball vs. Portland, 2:00 pm (Moraga, Calif.)
Live Stream | Stats
The back-to-back against Portland concludes on Wednesday afternoon as Saint Mary's looks to end the week in style against Portland. Something to watch for during these two matches: Megan Burton is the head coach for Portland, a former standout at Saint Mary's under head coach Rob Browning. Burton is in her first season at the helm of the Pilots program. So far in 2021, Saint Mary's has yet to record a sweep of a back-to-back, but they have faced some of the best teams in the conference thus far.
Softball at UC Davis (DH) , 11:00 am (Davis, Calif.)
Live Stream | Stats (Game 1) | Stats (Game 2)
The Gaels will travel to Davis this Friday to face off with the UC Davis Aggies in a doubleheader with the first contest starting at 11:00 am and the second starting at 1:30 pm. Saint Mary's nearly pulled off a big upset win on Sunday, taking a seventh-inning lead over Cal before ultimately fall 5-4 in the final frame.
THURSDAY
Men's Basketball vs. Pacific, 8:00 pm (Moraga, Calif.)
Watch (ESPN2) | Listen | Stats
The final home men's basketball game of the season is underway as Saint Mary's hosts Pacific in a pivotal WCC matchup. The Gaels and Tigers meet on ESPN2 as Saint Mary's honors this year's seniors with their final home game of the year inside UCU Pavilion. After a thrilling win on Monday afternoon against Pepperdine, the Gaels are fighting to get into the top-four spots in the WCC based on the Ken Pomeroy Adjusted Conference Winning Percentage. This marks the first matchup between these two teams in over a year (Feb. 15, 2020) when the Gaels down Pacific 71-63 at home.
FRIDAY
Softball vs. San Jose State, 1:00 pm (Moraga, Calif.)
Live Stream | Stats
Saint Mary's is back at it with a single game at home on Friday against San Jose State, beginning a three-game series against the Spartans. This marks the first time since the 2012 and 2013 seasons that the Gaels and Spartans have met in back-to-back seasons, with San Jose State beating Saint Mary's 5-1 last year on March 6.
Beach Volleyball vs. Oregon, 2:00 pm (Moraga, Calif.)
With the weekend free of indoor matches, the Gaels will hit the sand courts on campus and take on Oregon for their first beach match of the 2021 season. Saint Mary's went 4-4 last year in an abbreviated season, but the Gaels won their only WCC match against Santa Clara. This year's schedule is still being formed, and will have more WCC matches added, but the Gaels are 3-0 all-time against Oregon, most recently winning in 2018.
Baseball at California Baptist, 6:00 pm (Riverside, Calif.)
Live Stream | Stats
Fresh off a weekend split against Utah Valley, Saint Mary's hits the road for the first time this season with a four-game series against California Baptist. The Gaels will send Carlos Lomeli to the mound in game one, who took a tough-luck loss in game one of the season last Friday. The Gaels scored just one run in a 2-1 defeat last Friday, and went 0-4 on Fridays in 2020, while scoring just three runs.
SATURDAY
Beach Volleyball vs. San Francisco, 9:00 am (Moraga, Calif.)
The final beach matchup of the weekend takes place on Saturday morning at 9:00 am against San Francisco, a WCC foe. Saint Mary's has had San Francisco's number over the last several years, winning the last 11 matches while only losing four pairs in 11 matches. The Gaels have one member on the Preseason All-WCC team (Chandler Cowell) but return nearly their entire beach team from 2020 and should be a force in 2021.
Baseball at California Baptist (DH), 1:00 pm (Riverside, Calif.)
Live Stream | Stats (Game 1) | Stats (Game 2)
The four-game series against the Lancers continues on Saturday with a doubleheader between Saint Mary's and California Baptist, beginning at 1:00 pm. The Gaels will most likely turn to Sam Bower and Ky Bush to get the nod in both games of the doubleheader, and they were brilliant in their first starts of the year. Neither starter walked a batter, and the two combined for 11 innings of one-run baseball. Bush was the winning pitcher in the Gaels first win of the season.
Women's Soccer vs. Pepperdine, 1:00 pm (Moraga, Calif.)
Live Stream | Stats
Saint Mary's will seek their first win of the season this weekend against the Waves. The Gaels have gone into double overtime in all three of their games this season and have tied in their last two games. Taylor Poland posted her first career clean sheet in the team's last game against Pacific and made six saves.
Women's Basketball at Pacific, 2:00 pm (Stockton, Calif.)
Live Stream | Stats
Saint Mary's wraps up its season on Saturday against Pacific, their last test before the WCC tournament. The Gaels split on the road last weekend, beating LMU before falling to Pepperdine on Saturday. The Gaels are currently in the eighth spot in the conference standings, but Pacific is seventh and this contest could change who the Gaels would draw in the first round of the conference tournament with a win. Saint Mary's lost in overtime to Pacific at home to begin WCC play in December.
SUNDAY
Baseball at California Baptist, 11:00 am (Riverside, Calif.)
Live Stream | Stats
The four-game series concludes on Sunday with a matinee against the Lancers. The Gaels were able to get their first shutout of the season on Sunday with a 2-0 win over the Wolverines of Utah Valley, and did so on the strength of six pitchers. Dalton Ponce got the start and delivered four hitless innings of work to lead the Gaels pitching staff. Saint Mary's will head back to the bay following the weekend series.
Softball vs. San Jose State (DH), 12:00 pm (Moraga, Calif.)
Live Stream (Game 1) | Live Stream (Game 2) | Stats
Saint Mary's and San Jose State get back together on Sunday afternoon for a twin bill to conclude the three-game series. The Gaels will conclude their month of February with the series against San Jose State, trying to score a winning record in the month of February for the first time under head coach Sonja Garnett. Early on this season, the pitching has been much-improved for Saint Mary's, with a staff ERA of 3.28 during their first seven games.
Men's Soccer at Portland, 1:00 pm (Portland, Ore.)
Live Stream | Stats
The Gaels officially open conference play on Sunday with a contest against the Pilots. Saint Mary's is 2-0 this year with wins against Pacific and Santa Clara but both games were played as non-conference contests. The Pilots are 1-1 this season and are coming off a 1-0 loss to Oregon State. UP was chosen to finish third in the conference standings just behind the Gaels in the preseason coaches poll.
#GaelsRise
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Beach Volleyball
/ Women's Beach Volleyball
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/ Women's SoccerRHP
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