MORAGA, Calif. — Wrapping up the weekend inside University Credit Union Pavilion, Saint Mary's Volleyball hosted Utah State for the final matchup of the Bay Area Invitational. The Aggies had already played once in Moraga, on Friday against CSU Bakersfield, but lost in five sets. The Gaels, meanwhile, defeated CSU Bakersfield late last night. It appeared the same would be in order early on as the Gaels were hot out of the gate, but ran out of steam and lost in four sets to the Aggies with finals of 25-13, 24-26, 21-25, and 23-25. With the loss, SMC drops to 5-2 on the year while the Aggies improve to 6-3.
 
FAST STARTERS
For the second day in a row, the Gaels came out of the gates on fire against their opponent. SMC recorded eight of the first 10 points of the match, and Kristen Erland was the reason behind the last three points. She slammed down two kills and had a block assist with Selbie Christensen to cap off the run and help give the Gaels all kinds of energy early on. While their hitting percentage wasn't quite near .500 like it was last night, but they limited Utah State to a negative hitting percentage in the opening set. That helped give Saint Mary's a cushion that seemed like it would carry over into the remaining sets.
 
TURNING POINT
The second set was where the match seemed to flip in favor of Utah State. Saint Mary's went on a 3-0 run after they trailed 22-20 to take a one-point lead, thanks to a pair of errors from Utah State and one of the 15 kills from Elena Baka. Tatum Stall got the Aggies back in it with a kill, but then a service error put the Gaels in position for set point. Stall came back with consecutive kills to put Utah State in position to close it out, and that's exactly what they would do, with Abby Peterson nailing the set-winner and tying the match at 1-1.
 
THE NUMBERS
Baka led the way for Saint Mary's with 15 kills on the afternoon, two shy of her season and career-best of 17…Hawley Harrer had one of her best afternoons of the 2021 season by recording 11 kills, with just two errors, and a hitting percentage of .429…Chandler Cowell was all over the floor on Saturday, with 11 kills and a team-best 16 digs…the Gaels block was once again strong, with 10 in the match, including six block assists from Christensen, and four apiece from Erland and Jennifer "Boo" Laird.
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's plays two matches next week, with one at home and one on the road. First, SMC will stay in the Bay but head over to Berkeley for a matchup against Cal on Wednesday, September 15 inside Haas Pavilion. The Gaels will return home on Friday night for their last matchup of non-conference play as they host UC Davis with a first-serve time of 6:00 pm.
 
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