MORAGA, Calif. — Following an incredible back-to-back five set thriller week that featured the Gaels downing both San Francisco and Santa Clara, Saint Mary's will now hit the road for their longest road trip of the fall, as they get set to take on Gonzaga and Washington State on back-to-back evenings. The Gaels had their best two game stretch in conference play this past week, but prior to that, their best week came when Gonzaga and Washington State made their way to Moraga back in early October. Saint Mary's will look to keep momentum going, hoping to add a couple more road victories to the resume.
THE DETAILS
Saint Mary's Gaels at Gonzaga Bulldogs
Thursday, November 7 at 6 PM
Charlotte Y. Martin Center – Spokane, Wash.
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LIVE STATS
Saint Mary's Gaels at Washington State Cougars
Friday, November 8 at 6 PM
Bohler Gym – Pullman, Wash.
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LIVE STATS
THE PRIDES OF THE EAST BAY
Last week, Saint Mary's defeated both of their Bay Area rivals to the west, San Francisco and Santa Clara, defending their home court here in the East Bay. The two players that led the Gaels to those two victories both happen to be the two players who hail from cities close to the Moraga area; Genevieve Bane (Danville) and Natalie Peete (San Ramon). Bane went for a career-high 19 kills against San Francisco to go along with eight digs, three aces and three blocks. She followed that performance up by matching her 19 kills and eight digs against Santa Clara, this time adding one ace and five blocks. Natalie Peete also put up career marks against the Dons and Broncos. The redshirt freshman libero tied her career best with 19 digs against USF, then surpassed that with 23 against SCU, earning the Saint Mary's Shamrock Office Solutions Student-Athlete of the Week award. These two leaders on either side of the net will now look to lead the Gaels to a pair of road victories this week.
ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
Gonzaga Volleyball continues to struggle as their 2024 campaign begins to wind down. After winning their season opener, the Bulldogs have dropped 20 straight, including each of their first 11 conference matches. Third year Head Coach Katie Wilson saw her team take Oregon State and Santa Clara to five sets in back-to-back contests on 10/19 and 10/24 inching her closer to her first WCC win since 2022, but since has seen her team drop three straight road sweeps. While ranking at the bottom of the WCC standings, the Bulldogs do lead the WCC in service aces per set, sitting at 1.68. Junior outside hitter Autumn Larson and sophomore outside hitter Maggie Rickerts each have surpassed 20 on the season, while sophomore setter Nia Damuni is one shy of that mark. That said, the Gaels held Gonzaga to just one service ace in their previous meeting, a sweep by SMC in Moraga. All-time, the Gaels lead the series 44-31, but are just 20-18 in Spokane.
ABOUT THE COUGARS
Washington State Volleyball has quickly put themselves amongst the ranks of elite volleyball programs as members of the WCC, joining perennial WCC favorites LMU, Pepperdine and San Diego near the top of the standings. That said, the Cougars have hit a bit of a dryspell, dropping three of their last four, all coming at the hands of the three aforementioned WCC SoCal schools, and find themselves sitting in fourth place, three games behind top dog LMU. While first year Head Coach Korey Schroeder has to be pleased with his team's performance thus far, he will hope to lead them to a late surge to try and vie for a WCC Title in their first year as an affiliate member of the conference. Like Gonzaga, Washington State is a very good serving team, ranking second in the conference in both total aces and aces per set. This is due in big part to Eastern Washington transfer Sage Brustad, who has racked a WCC best 34 this season. Brustad needs just eight more aces to crack the top-10 in program history for a single season. Despite their high ranking in the conference, the Gaels pushed the Cougars to the brink back in Moraga last month, as WSU narrowly escaped with a 15-13 set five victory. Brustad was limited to just one ace in that one, but the Gaels were met by an attacking barrage from opposite Katy Ryan, who registered 30 kills and swung at a 0.531 clip. She was one of two Cougars to hit over 0.500 against the Gaels that day, with the other being Breccan Scheck, who tallied 11 kills and hit at 0.529. This will be just the second ever meeting between the Gaels and Washington State.
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