MORAGA, Calif. — Saint Mary's Volleyball opened up the home portion of their schedule on Wednesday night, with their home opener against Sacramento State. Inside an energized crowd inside University Credit Union Pavilion, the Gaels continued to show improvements as the match went along, but failed to secure a set win on the evening. The Hornets were able to leave Moraga with wins of 25-12, 25-18, and 25-20 on Wednesday, improving Sacramento State to 2-2 while dropping the Gaels to 0-3.
 
KEEP GETTING BETTER
On a set-by-set basis, the Gaels have found ways to improve from their opening set performances. After getting blitzed in the opening set by the Hornets, Saint Mary's was able to keep the remaining two sets close. The Gaels eventually earned their first lead of the night in the third set, and led as late as 13-12. Their metrics continued to improve as the match went along as well. After hitting just .028 in the first two sets combined, the Gaels were much more efficient in the remaining set, putting up 13 kills to just three errors for a hitting percentage of .312.
 
TWIN TOWERS
Two players who have stepped up big early on in the season have been Hawley Harrer and Genevieve Bane, and that was the case again on Wednesday night. Harrer was the team's leading attacker, with 10 kills to just one error, for a great percentage of .346. Bane was not far behind in the kills department with nine, and she also added seven digs to her total. When the Gaels turned to two of their tallest players on the outside, they were able to find immediate success.
 
KEEPING IT CLOSE
The third set was where the Gaels found the most success, taking their first lead of the night and nearly taking a set away from the Hornets and extending the evening. After falling behind quickly in the first two sets, that changed in the third, with the Gaels never trailing by more than two points until the very end of the set. One of the better players in the final set was Trinity Durfee, who recorded four of her five kills in the final set. The Gaels were tied at 16-16 with the Hornets, and then pulled within one at 18-17, but would never get closer again after the Hornets took four of the final five points.
 
AMONG OTHER NUMBERS
The Gaels allowed the Hornets to hit at a 34.8% clip, including over 40% in the first and third sets…a big determining factor in the match was the net battle, which was controlled by Sacramento State, leading in blocks 11-3…when the Gaels offense was rolling, it was rolling through Ella Sandt, who had 25 of the team's 30 assists…Makenna Joyce was busy defensively, leading the Gaels with nine digs.
 
QUOTABLE
"Hawley is a fabulous volleyball player all the way around. She can do everything. She's got a great arm. She's just a really, really good attacker, even when the other team knows we're going to send her a lot of balls. She is able to score a lot. Genevieve is doing great. This is a brand-new position for her. She's never played outside hitter before. Obviously, she's good and she's going to be fantastic. She's doing a great, great job. Really, she's one who every match almost every play. She's getting better as she gets accustomed to the position but our offense is otherwise not been very good. Trinity did a nice job tonight. You know she has a little bit of a smaller role in terms of offensively, but she was really effective for us tonight." – head coach Rob Browning
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's goes back out on the road to close out the second week of the season, with a road matchup against San Jose State set for Friday night in San Jose. The Gaels and Spartans will begin play at 5:00 pm, with Saint Mary's looking to avenge a loss from last season in Moraga where the teams went into four sets. The Gaels will have just one more road match during non-conference play, with a road game at UC Davis on September 13.