MORAGA, Calif. — It's been a long time coming it seems for Saint Mary's Volleyball to get into the win column, but they took care of that on Friday night in dominating fashion. Taking on the Pennsylvania Quakers for the first time since 2008, the Gaels were able to sweep past their foes from the East Coast with scores of 25-19, 25-12, and 25-8. The win is the first of the season for SMC, while Penn falls to 1-4 early in the year.
 
ERLAND'S BLOCK PARTY
Some nights are better than others at the net, but Kristen Erland had one of the best nights by a Gael in recent memory. After recovering from an early-season concussion, Erland was in form on Friday night, pacing the Gaels with a career-best 13 total blocks. That number is the fourth-most in a match in Saint Mary's history, and the most by any Gael since Brittany Barker in 2006. She had five blocks in the first set and seven in the final set, accounting for half of the team's final 10 points on blocks alone. The Gaels put up 15 total blocks as a team, their most since March of 2021 during the Covid-altered season against Pacific.
 
SWING AWAY!
The Gaels had struggled early in the season when it came to getting past the block of the opposition, leading to a lot of errors and a lot of opposing blocks. Their hitting percentage was just over .110 going into the match, but it swelled up with a .414 performance on Friday night. It's been a while since the Gaels have had a hitting percentage that high, going all the way back to November 29, 2013 against UTEP when the Gaels .447. As a team, the Gaels had just five attack errors compared to 41 kills. Hawley Harrer continued her hot streak with 14 kills, while Erland added nine and Megan Chandler Allred tied a career-best with 7 kills.
 
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU SAY?
Ella Sandt set a career-best with 36 assists on the night, rarely coming out of the match, and also tying a career-best with two assisted blocks…Makenna Joyce added 11 digs to help the Gaels keep balls off the floor, with Chandler Allred adding nine…Genevieve Bane was the team's best server on Friday night, setting a new career-best with five aces, including a pair of back-to-back aces…SMC held Penn to an even-.000 hitting percentage, with as many kills as errors (24)…the eight points that Saint Mary's held Penn to in the final set is the fewest since they held Cal to just eight in the opening set on September 15, 2021.
 
QUOTABLES
"It felt really good to be back. I had a little injury at the beginning of the season, so I think I was just kind of getting back into it. Also playing a new position [middle blocker], I just think everything kind of clicked. It felt really good to be out there with my team," – Kristen Erland
 
"I think overall we served pretty well. Our hitting percentage was better, which was something that was lacking. And obviously, blocking was really good. We still got some stuff to work on, like our serve-receive and other stuff, but blocking and hitting was really good. And Kristen is vicious." – Hawley Harrer
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's is right back at it tomorrow afternoon with a 1:00 pm home match against CSUN. The Matadors beat Penn in three sets earlier in the day, putting them at 2-5 on the season. After the match, Saint Mary's will prepare for a road contest against UC Davis on Tuesday night and then they will close out the week with a home match against Cal on Thursday, September 15.