MORAGA, Calif. — After dropping their home opener last weekend, Saint Mary's Volleyball made good on their second home match of the season. Playing with some fire from the very first set, the Gaels were able to prevail in the later sets and take Friday night's matchup against CSU Bakersfield with a final of 3-1. Saint Mary's improves to 5-1 on the season while handing the Roadrunners their first loss of the year, dropping them to 4-1.
 
HERE COMES THE BOOOOOOOOO(M)
By all accounts, Friday night was a career-night for fifth-year middle blocker Jennifer "Boo" Laird. She ranks among the leaders in the WCC in hitting percentage and she helped her numbers on Friday, with 12 kills versus just one error. The 12 kills represent a new career-best for Laird, who also racked up two solo blocks and four assisted blocks. It seemed every time the Gaels turned to Laird in the middle, she was slamming it down on the other side with authority, including several highlight-worthy attacks. With Laird leading the way, Saint Mary's hit at a 26.5% clip on Friday, while also registering 13 blocks.
 
STARTING STRONG, ENDING STRONG
Saint Mary's began and ended the night in virtually the same way, coming out of the gates hot with a 6-1 run and closing it with a 25-13 set win over the Roadrunners. In that first set, the Gaels attacked at a gaudy 0.481 rate, while picking up 15 kills to just two errors, and racking up four aces from the line. The Gaels pulled ahead in the final set in a similar fashion, using a 10-2 run to turn a 7-6 lead into a 17-8 advantage. During that run, everyone was getting involved the Gaels, including Selbie Christensen and Hawley Harrer, who each had block assists to open it up, and Harrer picked up two kills during the run.
 
ACE UP THEIR SLEEVES
While Saint Mary's hasn't struggled from the service line in 2021, it has been an area that could use improvement. That was certainly the case on Friday night, as the Gaels recorded 10 service aces, easily their most in a match this year. In a similar way to how the night began and ended, the Gaels were strong at the line in the first and final sets. Saint Mary's picked up four aces in the first set (including a Makenna Joyce ace to close the first set), and three more in the closing set. Elena Baka had three, while Chandler Cowell, Abigail Matoso, and Christensen each had a pair.
 
BROWNING BITES
"Another great opponent to challenge us. I'm happy with how our team started the match and then came on strong at the end when they needed to. Our offense is inconsistent and we need to fix that. We played some good defense ourselves, which is something we've been working on. Looking forward to another strong opponent in Utah State tomorrow," – head coach, Rob Browning
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's stays at home on Saturday afternoon and hosts Utah State at 1:00 pm inside University Credit Union Pavilion. Utah State played in Moraga on Friday morning and lost in five sets to the Roadrunners, and took on San Francisco late on Friday night.
 
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