SAN DIEGO — With West Coast Conference play beginning this week, Saint Mary's will get a taste of the road right out of the chute. The Gaels will have their first conference road trip this week as they play the USD Toreros on Thursday night, and then take on the BYU Cougars on Saturday afternoon in Provo, Utah.
 
THE DETAILS
Saint Mary's Gaels (6-3) at #25 San Diego Toreros (6-3)
Thursday, September 23 at 7:00 pm
Jenny Craig Pavilion – San Diego
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Saint Mary's Gaels at #11 BYU Cougars (10-1)
Saturday, September 25 at 12:00 pm
Smith Fieldhouse – Provo, Utah
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LAST TIME OUT
In recent matches, Saint Mary's Volleyball has had no problem coming out of the gates and looking like a dominant team. However, they've been winding up on the short end of the stick in the sets that remain, but Friday night, the Gaels were humming a different tune. After controlling Friday's match with UC Davis from the first serve, the Gaels were able to remain focused and lock down a three-set sweep of UC Davis, with finals of 25-12, 25-22, and 25-19. The Gaels will finish up non-conference play with a record of 6-3
 
EFFICIENCY IS KEY
Saint Mary's tied their most efficient night of the season on the attack by registering a hitting percentage of 33%, which they also did against Wyoming at the Rumble in the Rockies. They hit at least 0.265 in all three sets, including a red-hot 0.435 in the opening set. SMC only recorded 10 attack errors all evening, and not a single player had more errors thank kills. It was Chandler Cowell pacing the attack for the Gaels, with 11 kills and zero attack errors. For Cowell, it was her fourth-straight match of exactly 11 kills. Kristen Erland followed up her career-best performance from Wednesday night with eight kills, adding two blocks.
 
ABOUT SAN DIEGO
The Toreros had a tough non-conference schedule, and still found a way to come out of it with a 6-3 mark. They opened their season against the top-ranked Longhorns of Texas and lost in three sets, and also lost to #19 Utah, but beat RV Hawaii and #16 UCLA. Rounding out conference play, San Diego lost on the road to Long Beach State in four sets on September 18. The Toreros are the only team in the WCC blocking at a better rate than the Gaels, with 3.1 blocks per set. Three qualifying players have at least one block per set, led by Leyla Blackwell and her 50 total blocks (1.43 per set, best in the WCC) on the season.
 
ABOUT BYU
The Cougars find themselves ranked #11 in the NCAA after a three-game winning streak to close out non-conference play. Their lone loss of the season came at #4 Pitt on September 10, and they've had a great non-conference schedule, with Michigan State and Utah on the schedule as well. They will host Pacific on Thursday night to begin WCC play, looking to stay atop the WCC standings. They lead the conference in a variety of statistics, including hitting percentage, opponent's hitting percentage, and kills per set. They also have the leading attacker in the conference in Heather Gneiting and her 0.489 hitting percentage.
 
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