MORAGA, Calif. — In what was their best all-around performance on this young season, the Saint Mary's Gaels (0-4) took their East Bay rival, the Cal Golden Bears (5-2), to five sets, but the Golden Bears narrowly escaped Moraga with a victory in the five set thriller. This was Saint Mary's second showdown with a Power Four opponent, taking on Arkansas two weeks ago, and the Gaels have risen to the occasion, forcing five sets in each of those matches with herculean showings on both sides of the net.
The Gaels looked overmatched early in this one, dropping set one 25-13, but this awoke the beast in the form of the Saint Mary's block, as SMC came roaring back in set two with a 25-23 victory. Tessa Schouten led the charge in that frame, getting her hands on half of the Gaels six roofs.
Set three was a back and forth affair that saw the Golden Bears prevail 25-22 despite three more big time blocks from the Gaels, two of which again saw Schouten returning to the Cal side of the net. This prompted the strongest defensive showing in a set by the Gaels all season. The Golden Bears looked ferocious in set four, but a combination of four blocks and 23 digs, 10 of which were recorded by Katherine Gee helped SMC stave off everything Cal had to throw at them, moving us to a decisive set five. Led by Genevieve Bane's five fifth set Gaels, the Gaels threw all they could muster at the Golden Bears in the final frame, but ultimately fell 15-10 in a wild match that featured 45 ties and 15 lead changes.
For the first time this season, Genevieve Bane led all Gaels with 17 kills, committing just three errors to hit at season best 0.318. The 17 kills marked a new career-high for the redshirt junior out of Danville. One kill behind Bane was the Gaels kills leader on the season, Hannah Taylor. Taylor's 16 kills brought her to a season total of 58 through four matches, as she is now averaging 3.41 kills per set on the year. Rounding out the group of double digit killers was Clarissa Klein, who went for 11, a new career mark for her. Setters Madi Zorn and Hailee Garcia went for 27 and 25 assists respectively. Zorn's 27 surpassed her career high set just three nights ago against UC Davis. Bane not only led the Gaels in kills, but also accounted for half of the team's six aces. Katherine Gee had her second 20+ dig match of the season, finishing with 20 on the dot, while Garcia completed her assist-dig double-double with 16 digs, and Bane finished her kill-dig double-double with 10 digs. Abby Castillon went for 14 digs, and was one kill shy of her second double-double of the season. The blocking front was the most impressive for the Gaels this evening, as they stuffed 13 Cal attack attempts, led by Tessa Schouten, who tallied five block assists, along with Kaliko Kealoha, Hannah Taylor and Clarissa Klein, who each had two solo blocks.
SEASON'S BEST OUTING (SO FAR)
Saint Mary's surpassed all of their high water marks for the year in tonight's match. Their 67 kills and 13.4 kills per set were both season bests, as was their 0.231 hitting percentage. 73 digs was also a team best for the year. Most impressively, the Gaels blocking effort continued to improve, as they tallied 13 as a team, reaching double-digits for the first time all season. This is even more impressive when factoring in that both Gaels middle blockers are true freshmen.
TALKIN ABOUT BLOCKIN
The Gaels saw just about every front row player get involved in tonight's block party. Tessa Schouten delivered five block assists to lead the way. Behind her, Clarissa Klein tallied a pair of block assists and a pair of block solos. Kaliko Kealoha and Hannah Taylor each went for two solo blocks and one block assist, while Abby Castillon had the inverse with one solo block and two block assists. Rounding out the group was Genevieve Bane with a block assist. The Gaels recorded 17 double-digit block matches last season, and will hope to keep up with how they played tonight to record their fair share this season.
UP NEXT…
Saint Mary's will head to Fullerton to take part in the Titan Invitation on Friday, 9/13 and Saturday, 9/14. The Gaels will first take on Oral Roberts at 11 AM on Friday before playing host Cal State Fullerton at 1:30 PM on Saturday.
DON'T MISS OUT ON HOME VOLLEYBALL ACTION. TICKETS ARE ON SALE HERE.
#GaelsRise
