MORAGA, Calif. — Saint Mary's Volleyball (0-2) battled valiantly in their season opening tournament in San Luis Obispo, but ultimately fell in five sets to #19 Arkansas and in three sets to host Cal Poly. While no wins were taken from the tournament, valuable experience was gained for the young Gaels. They now will look to build off of that gained experience, as they quest for their first victory of the season in front of their home crowd against UC Davis (2-2).

THE DETAILS
Saint Mary's Gaels vs UC Davis Aggies 
Saturday, September 7 at 3 PM
UCU Pavilion – Moraga, Calif. 
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CAREER HIGHS APLENTY EARLY
The Gaels wasted no time to get ramped up into midseason form on their opening weekend, racking up multiple career-high marks. Hannah Taylor opened her season with an 18 kill performance against Arkansas, besting her previous high of 17 kills set last season in Spokane against Gonzaga. Not far behind her was Genevieve Bane, who went for 16 kills for the third time in her career. Abby Castillon's 14 kills set a career high mark, which previously sat at 12. She also went for 16 digs, one off of her best mark from last season at Pacific. Setter Hailee Garcia's 14 digs and five aces were both career-high marks against the Razorbacks, while newcomers Katherine Gee and Kaliko Kealoha both shined defensively, with 27 digs and five blocks respectively. 

WELCOME TO THE 500 CLUB
With her fourth kill early in the first set of the Saint Mary's-Cal Poly matchup, Genevieve Bane reached the 500 kill mark for her Saint Mary's career, doing so in 56 matches as a Gael. She is the first Gael to reach 500 kills since Hawley Harrer did it in the 2022 season. Harrer completed the feat just one match faster, in 55 career matches with the Gaels. 

ABOUT THE AGGIES
UC Davis opened their season with four matches in the state of Indiana. After opening the season with neutral site wins over UMBC and Kansas State, they dropped road matches to Purdue and Indiana, and now will return to the golden state to take on the Gaels in Moraga. Head Coach Dan Connors enters year 11 at the helm, holding a 134-136 record, and will hope to see that record a few ticks above 0.500 at the culmination of this season. The Aggie return every starter from a season ago, including 2nd Team All-Big West opposite Olivia Utterback. Utterback has opened her senior season with 47 kills in four matches, second only to junior outside hitter Jade Light's 53. Saint Mary's leads the all-time series against UC Davis, 6-2, and are currently riding a six game winning streak over the Aggies dating back to 1989. 

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