VB | Indoor Season Ends with Loss to #15 BYU

Saturday, March 27

Moraga, CA

3:00 pm

Saint Mary's College of California

7-10,7-10WCC

BYU

14-1,13-1WCC

BYU

Saint Mary's (CA)

Photo by: Saint Mary's Athletics / Tod Fierner

VB | Indoor Season Ends with Loss to #15 BYU

3/27/2021 5:18:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

MORAGA, Calif. — The 2021 spring indoor volleyball season came to a close on Saturday afternoon inside University Credit Union Pavilion, as Saint Mary's hosted #15 BYU in a rematch from Friday afternoon. While BYU continued to play well, so too did the Gaels, who fought even harder on Saturday across all three sets. Twice, SMC nearly was able to take a set away from one of the top teams in the country, but the end result was a sweep by BYU with finals of 25-19, 25-23, and 25-21. BYU finishes the regular season with a mark of 14-1 while the Gaels end the season with an indoor record of 7-10.

IMPROVEMENTS
One major area of improvement for Saint Mary's came on their attack, which was far more consistent on Satuday afternoon. After hitting just 5.7% on Friday against the Cougars, the Gaels got that mark up to 16.3%, tripling their efforts. Most impressively, Saint Mary's was able to find success in the second and third sets against a BYU team that does not allow opponents to hit well at all. The Gaels swung it at a 25.6% and 21.6% clip in the final two sets, their best marks of the six sets against BYU this year. Hawley Harrer was particularly efficient on Saturday, picking up eight kills with just one error and a percentage of 41.2%.

REMAINING STRONG
There was one area all weekend where the Gaels were better than BYU on a consistent basis, and that was from the service line. The Gaels racked up seven aces on Saturday compared to just two errors, while BYU recorded six aces and eight errors (19 total errors across the two days). Elena Baka is the leader of the Gaels when it comes to serves, and she led the way again on Saturday with three, while Alosina Thompson added a pair. Saint Mary's finishes the regular season with the second most aces in the WCC.

COMPETING LATE
The Gaels were in all three sets, but fell short in all three despite holding late leads. In the first set, the Gaels used a 4-0 run to take an 18-17 lead over the Cougars. Following a BYU timeout, the Cougars closed out the first set on an 8-1 run to win 25-19. The Gaels never led in the second set, but were able to make it a one-point set at 23-22 thanks to a 5-1 run, capped off by kills from Harrer and Baka. Again it was a one-point score at 24-23 after a setting error from BYU, but Saint Mary's couldn't get the last point. As was the case on Friday, the third set was the most competitive, with the Gaels pulling ahead 16-15 for their final lead. They stayed within three the rest of the way, but BYU closed it out with four of the final six points.

AMONG (SEASON) NUMBERS
Five Gaels played every set this season (Harrer, Baka, Chandler Cowell, Trinity Durfee, and Jennifer "Boo" Laird)…Baka led the Gaels with 194 kills while Cowell put up a career-best 157 to land in second…Laird was the most efficient attacker and blocker, with a 25% hitting percentage and 58 total blocks…six Gaels ended the year with over 100 digs, but it was Abigail "Abby" Matoso leading the Gaels with 164.

#GaelsRise