MORAGA, Calif. — The final month of the regular season officially began on Thursday night, as Saint Mary's Volleyball welcomed in (RV) Pepperdine for a West Coast Conference match. The Gaels had taken the Waves into four sets in their first meeting of the season, but they were unable to replicate any of that magic on Thursday. A close first set was followed by Pepperdine taking the final two sets en route to a sweep, with scores of 25-22, 25-20, and 25-15. Saint Mary's now stands at 7-13 (4-8) while Pepperdine improves to 17-7 (8-5).
 
ANYBODY'S BALLGAME
The first set was air-tight all the way through, with both teams playing scrappy volleyball out of the chute. This was indicated by Makenna Joyce racking up an impressive 10 digs in the opening set alone, with a lot of long rallies telling the story. Saint Mary's held serve and was in front for a majority of the set, leading by as many seven points at 12-5 and then again at 20-18. Pepperdine then pulled ahead with a 3-0 run, but the Gaels answered back to take the lead after a kill from Hawley Harrer and the second ace of the set from Genevieve Bane. With the Gaels in front 22-21, the Waves used their final timeout, and came out of it with a 4-0 run to close out the set and put the dagger on the Gaels.
 
NEVER QUITTING
It looked like Pepperdine might run away with the second set, after they opened with the first four points, and then held a 14-7 lead midway through the set. The Gaels did a good job at holding steady and keeping it relatively even the rest of the way, closing the deficit down to just three points at 22-19 after an ace from Megan Chandler Allred. The Waves again called a timeout and then scored the next two points, which put the Gaels on the ropes, and they could never recover, despite a kill from Bane to stave off elimination at 24-20.
 
AMONG OTHER NUMBERS
The main stat that jumps out on Thursday is the discrepancy in hitting percentage, as the Waves hit .279 while the Gaels hit just .071…SMC never hit above .082 in any set…Harrer was the leading attacker in kills with nine, while Kjersti Strong continued her solid run with six kills and five of the seven blocks for the Gaels…Joyce wound up with 17 digs on the night, her most since getting 25 against UC Davis in September…the Gaels were much improved in the serve and pass game, matching the Waves in aces with five and having two fewer service errors (six versus four).
 
QUOTABLE
"We need to put some things together. We need to combine some good serving with a more efficient offense. It's a lot of little things, it's not one big thing. It's a lot of little things that add up to a really big thing. Pepperdine is too good to give them stuff like that. We've probably won some matches this year playing similar to how we played tonight, but when you play a team like Pepperdine, they're going to make you pay for it." – head coach Rob Browning
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's will turn around and host Loyola Marymount on Saturday afternoon, with first serve scheduled for 1:00 pm inside University Credit Union Pavilion. The Gaels will be looking to get back at the Lions for the three-set sweep they suffered at their place. Following the afternoon contest, the Gaels will hit the road for the final time on the season, going to San Diego and BYU.