LOS ANGELES — Saint Mary's Volleyball (5-11, 1-6 WCC) struggled to get anything going against the stifling defense of LMU (14-4, 6-1 WCC), falling in sweep fashion to the Lions on Saturday afternoon at Gersten Pavilion. The Gaels will have one more contest on this roadtrip, before returning home next Saturday. 

The Gaels and Lions traded points to open up the match, and locked up at four all early thanks to a couple of kills and a block from Abby Castillon. The Lions would go on a 4-0 run, and would not relinquish the lead in the set, despite the Gaels cutting the deficit to as close as one point. Castillon tallied a team high three kills for the set. 

The second set mimicked the first, with the Gaels this time playing LMU to an early 9-9 deadlock. Clarissa Klein had a pair of early kills to keep the Gaels tight with the Lions, but every time LMU needed a side out, they were able to pick it up, this time stringing two and three point streaks to get the separation from the Gaels that they needed. Saint Mary's brought the deficit down to three at 20-17 late, but the Lions polished off the set with five straight points to take a commanding 2-0 lead. The Gaels mustered up just six kills in the second set, three belonging to Klein and three to Genevieve Bane. 

LMU ran away with things in the final set of the match, as Saint Mary's never led and never saw a tie beyond 0-0. After a Clarissa Klein kill brought the score to 8-6 in favor of the Lions, they went on to close out the set on a 17-3 run to remain atop the WCC standings and keep the upstart Gaels at bay. Klein went errorless on eight swings in the final frame, totalling two kills. 

Clarissa Klein led the Gaels with seven kills to just one attack error. She was the only Gaels hitter to hit above 0.000. Madi Zorn and Hailee Garcia each were limited to just six assists, with Zorn picking up the Gaels lone ace of the match. Tessa Schouten had a nice day blocking, getting her hands on three of Saint Mary's four blocks, while Natalie Peete once again led from the back row with nine digs. 

KLEIN CONTINUES TO LEAD
Going up against one of the better blocking teams in the WCC did not deter Clarissa Klein from having herself another nice day. The redshirt sophomore totalled a team-high seven kill while committing just one error. Klein has now gone five straight matches committing two or fewer attack errors in a match. In that time, her hitting percentage sits at 0.388. 

PEETE CONTINUES TO SHOW GROWTH
Since the start of WCC play, Natalie Peete has grown from redshirt freshman to grizzled veteran on the back row. Peete has tallied 96 digs in her debut campaign, with 78 of those coming against WCC foes. The San Ramon native earned her second collegiate start at libero vs LMU at home on 9/28, picking up 15 digs in that one, and has not relinquished the role since, tallying at least 6 digs in every match thereafter. 

UP NEXT
The Gaels will go from Southern California to Western Oregon to take on Oregon State in Corvallis. First serve for the October 24 matchup is set for 7 PM.

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