MORAGA, Calif. — After cruising past Pennsylvania on Friday night, Saint Mary's Volleyball returned to University Credit Union Pavilion on Saturday afternoon for a tilt against CSUN. The Matadors won a pair of matches on Friday, including one against Penn inside the Gaels home gym, but they couldn't find that magic again. Saint Mary's continued its strong play, sweeping all three sets against the Matadors with scores of 25-16, 25-21, and 25-11 to finish the weekend perfect. SMC is now 2-4 on the year while CSUN falls to 2-6.
 
EXTRA EFFICIENCY
Saint Mary's had a massive night hitting the ball on Friday against Penn, and while their numbers weren't quite as high on Saturday, they were still very efficient. The Gaels finished with a hitting percentage of .353, with just 10 attack errors to 46 kills. For the weekend, Saint Mary's had just 15 errors and 87 kills. In the final set, Saint Mary's went errorless for a hitting percentage of .484. As has been the case to start the season, Hawley Harrer was the model of efficiency for the Gaels, leading the way with 12 kills and just two attack errors. Through three weeks, Harrer is hitting at .352.
 
STRONG PERFORMANCE
Last night it was Kristen Erland putting up a massive number in the blocks column, and on Saturday it was another middle blocker leading the charge. Kjersti Strong had her best performance as a Gael on Saturday, racking up 11 kills with just one attack error for a .625 hitting percentage, and adding three blocks. Perhaps most impressive is that Strong had all 11 kills in the first two sets, with five in the opening stanza and six more in the second set. Her performance at the net is a welcomed sight for the Gaels, who continue to have new players show up and show out every game.
 
MORE IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS
After recording the fourth-most blocks in Saint Mary's history with 13 one night ago, Kristen Erland had just four block assists on Saturday, part of 10 total blocks for the Gaels…she also added nine kills without any errors for a hitting percentage of .750…the offense continues to run through Ella Sandt, who led the way with 33 digs while also pacing the defense with 13 digs…Megan Chandler Allred and Makenna Joyce also reached double-digits in digs with 10…there were a lot of sixes in the stat line for Genevieve Bane: 6 kills, 6 digs, 6 block assists.
 
QUOTABLES
"I think the difference was on Monday at practice, Rob was saying we need a complete flip. We need a complete change. We were 0-4 and not playing ourselves. So, this week, we grinded so hard in practice and changed a bunch of little things. Also, our team is so new, we have so many freshmen and newcomers, so we need to work out the kinks and learn to play with each other. We really focused on that this week." – Ella Sandt
 
"You have to have different people step up at different times because no individual player is going to be able to be that person every single night. It just can't happen. The thing that's so impressive about this weekend is that in both matches we had three, four, and five hitters stepping up and that's impressive. The balance there is so important. That's what a coach really wants to see is balance." – head coach, Rob Browning
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's is back at it next week, with one match on the road before returning home to close out non-conference play. The Gaels will travel to UC Davis for a Tuesday night clash with the Aggies at 6:00 pm before returning home to face Cal on Thursday night at 6:00 pm. These are the final two matches of non-conference play, with West Coast Conference games beginning the following week.