SAN DIEGO — For the second time in as many afternoons, Saint Mary's Volleyball hit the hardwood inside Jenny Craig Pavilion as the Gaels met up with the 21^st-ranked Toreros of San Diego. While the Gaels were able to attack at a much stronger clip on Monday, they fell victim to what was a strong response from San Diego, who managed to take all three sets from the Gaels with scores of 25-23, 25-21, and 25-22. With the sweep, San Diego is now 2-0 while the Gaels are 1-5.
 
GETTING IT ROLLING
After the Gaels were outplayed on Sunday, they came out on fire Monday afternoon. Saint Mary's carried a 14-5 lead early in the first set, and were poised to take it from the Toreros. A 5-0 run in the middle helped buoy the Gaels, with a pair of kills from Chandler Cowell and one from Trinity Durfee. A service ace from Abigail "Abby" Matoso made it 14-5 and the Gaels were in command, but that's when the Toreros found themselves. It came down to the end, where the first set was tied at 23-23, but the Toreros got the last two points and the victory.
 
HANDLING THE BULK
Statistically, things looked a bit strange for Saint Mary's after the first two sets. The Gaels only had 17 kills in the first two sets despite the close contests with San Diego, and 15 of those 17 kills came from the combination of Cowell and Elena Baka. Things evened out in the third set, where the Gaels racked up 14 kills and others were able to get some quality swings. But the Gaels have turned to Baka and Cowell all season and on Monday, they seemed to be up to the challenge in the first two sets.
 
BESTS AFTER THREE
Matoso found herself putting up a career-afternoon, setting new personal bests in digs (12) and service aces (3) while she spent the afternoon as the Gaels libero. She also tied a career-best in assists with four, which she accomplished against LMU earlier this season…Saint Mary's did not record an attacking error in the third set to go along with their 14 kills, for a hitting percentage of 42.4%...Cowell set a new career-best with three assisted blocks in the three sets against San Diego, and she now has career-bests this season in kills, assists, digs, errors, solo blocks, and assisted blocks for single match totals.

BROWNING BITES
"We played better and fought harder today. We asserted ourselves more and put pressure on them with our serve and attack. Our defensive effort was better and we were more effective blocking today. We have some areas that need improvement - our serving is not nearly as good as it should be. Serve receive passing is going to get better and we're going to get tougher, too. We are far from the team we will be." - head coach Rob Browning

ABBY ANSWERS
"Even though it wasn't the outcome we wanted this week, I am still really proud of our team for being warriors during the second match. I thnk we really learned a lot from this week, and we are definitely trending in the right direction. I have so much faith in this team and I am excited for the rest of the season. I think our freshmen did a great job stepping up this week and were leaders on the court. Ella Sandt brought a lot of fire to the court, which is something we needed." - Abigail "Abby" Matoso
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's returns home to Moraga to practice before heading back out on the road to take on Gonzaga in Spokane on Sunday, February 14 and Monday, February 15. This series with Gonzaga will wrap up the first four series of the year, where three were on the road for the Gaels. Saint Mary's will not have a true road series the remainder of the year following the Gonzaga trip, with two home series and three series that will be split (with Bay Area rivals).
 
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