MORAGA, Calif. — Playing in their first back-to-back at home this season, Saint Mary's Volleyball ran it back against Pepperdine on Wednesday afternoon. There were improvements by both teams, but the Waves prevailed as the stronger team during this particular week of volleyball. Saint Mary's got a set from Pepperdine but fell in four sets to the Waves with scores of 15-25, 25-23, 15-25, and 12-25. Pepperdine remains unbeaten on the year at 4-0, while Saint Mary's now sits at 1-3.
 
TAKING THE SECOND
Set two was controlled by the Gaels from the onset. A theme all week was the Gaels ability to get up on the Waves, and that's exactly what happened, using a great 8-3 start capped off by a kill from Trinity Durfee. The Waves battled back and forced a tie score at multiple points, but were forced into a timeout when Jennifer "Boo" Laird laid down one of her three aces on the afternoon, giving SMC a 16-13 lead. Pepperdine came out of the timeout and pulled ahead 18-17, but the Gaels never trailed again. Tied at 23-23, Hawley Harrer got the Gaels up with a left-handed kill, and an attack error by the Waves secured the second set win for Saint Mary's.
 
ATTACKING THE MIDDLE
Saint Mary's received a pair of strong performances from their middle blockers in Laird and Durfee. Laird had her best match of the season, with nine kills, an attack percentage of 47.1%, a block and three aces (one off of her career-best). Durfee built on her career-best from Tuesday with a new-best of seven kills, and she was one of two Gaels to assist on a pair of blocks. Getting solid performances from those two, in the second set in particular, was a key reason why Saint Mary's clawed back to get a set from the Waves on Wednesday.
 
AMONG OTHER NUMBERS
The Gaels were hitting at over 24% in each of the first two sets, before those numbers dipped in the final two…Elena Baka led the Gaels with 11 kills, and she also put up 12 digs…Ella Sandt was the primary setter and she responded with a career-best 31 assists, and three total blocks…Makenna Joyce was the Gaels libero and paced SMC with 15 digs.
 
BROWNING BITES
"It was great to battle and take a set off this team. Pepperdine had too much fire power for us and we weren't good enough in too many areas where we should be better. I think we are a better team today than we were a couple days ago. Playing really good teams like Pepperdine is exactly what we want and need." – head coach, Rob Browning
 
LAIRD DECLARES
"Looking at the score, it would be easy to say that we had a bad match, but the score does not define what kind of team we are. We did a lot of amazing things out there and there were also a lot of things we can improve on. I think the biggest takeaway from today is that our team culture remained strong and we are excited to get back in the gym and just keep getting better." – Jennifer "Boo" Laird
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's will resume action on Sunday, February 7 when they head down to San Diego to take on the 22^nd-ranked Toreros for a pair of matches. Both will be at 1:00 pm in San Diego, and it begins a four-match road trip for the Gaels, with San Diego and Gonzaga on tap.
 
#GaelsRise