WAIKIKI, Hawaii – The Saint Mary's Gaels (7-3) ran their early season winning streak to four in a row, besting Chaminade (2-1) and San Francisco (0-6) on day one of the Heineken Queen's Cup, played on the sands of Waikiki Beach on the island of Oahu. With seven wins in their first ten matches, the Gaels are off to their best start in five years. 

Opening their day against Chaminade, the Gaels made quick work of the Silverswords, winning each of the first four points to lock up a 4-1 victory. The ones (Allie Cataldo/Hannah Couch), fours (Genevieve Bane/Hannah Glick) and fives (Grace Travis/Delaney Nicholls) all knocked out quick two set victories to lock up the victory, while Nya Crump and Chloe Swanson outlasted the Chaminade two pair with a 15-8 set three victory to earn the fourth point. The win was the Gaels second in as many meetings against the Silverswords, who they defeated last year in this very tournament.

Game two was a much closer affair that came down to the final point. In what would be the Gaels first conference match of the year, the San Francisco Dons threw everything they had at the Gaels. At the top, Allie Cataldo and Hannah Couch took the first point in straight sets, but the Dons twos responded with a straight set victory of their own. Delaney Nicholls and Grace Travis won a tight set two 22-20 to lock up their straight set victory at the fives, but a 15-13 third set at the fours saw Hannah Glick and Genevieve Bane defeated for just the second time this year, knotting the score at two apiece and leaving things up to the Gaels three pairing of Angelina Bour and Sedona Sherman. Bour and Sherman avenged their loss from earlier in the day, taking a three set thriller, 21-15, 14-21, 15-12. After the score was knotted at 12 all in the decisive third set, Bour and Sherman polished off three straight points to secure the victory. On top of a 7-3 overall record, the Gaels also moved to 1-0 in conference play with the win over their rivals from the west. 

The Gaels one and five pairs (Cataldo/Couch and Nicholls/Travis respectively) both went 2-0 for the day. Allie and Hannah now sit at 8-2 on the year together, while Delaney and Grace are at 5-5. The Gaels three other pairs each went 1-1 in the two match day. The road gets a bit tougher for the Gaels tomorrow, as they will square off with 15th ranked Hawaii at 10:30 AM and 17th ranked Washington at 3:30 PM.

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