MORAGA, Calif. — The 2025 Saint Mary's Volleyball season will get underway this weekend, with the Gaels heading to the state of North Dakota for a pair of road matches against the University of North Dakota and North Dakota State, sandwiching a neutral site tilt against Bowling Green. The match will not only feature the Saint Mary's Head Coaching debut from Tyler Hildebrand, but will also feature the chance for each of the 10 Gaels newcomers to make their first appearances in SMC uniforms.
THE DETAILS
Saint Mary's Gaels at North Dakota Fighting Hawks
Friday, August 29 at 4 PM PST
Betty Engelstad Sioux Center – Grand Forks, N.D.
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LIVE STATS
Saint Mary's Gaels vs. Bowling Falcons
Saturday, August 30 at 9 AM PST
Betty Engelstad Sioux Center – Grand Forks, N.D.
LIVE STATS
Saint Mary's Gaels at North Dakota State Bison
Sunday, August 31 at 9 AM PST
Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse – Fargo, N.D.
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A YOUTHFUL SQUAD
Saint Mary's is one of four teams in the country with 10 true or redshirt freshmen on their roster, joining the likes of Holy Cross, Wichita State and WCC foe Pacific. Seven of those are true freshmen (Mya Allen, Candela Ruano, Milani Billings, Ivona Lazovic, Layne Dent, Miley Thunstrom and Amanda Prior), two redshirted last season at other programs (Anaya Thrower and Vivian Parker) and one redshirted a year ago with the Gaels (Anna Hanson). This should prove to make the Gaels a dangerous team to start the year, with not much game film to scout their extremely deep roster.
MILESTONE WATCH
A few Saint Mary's Gaels will be on milestone watch for the 2025 season. Entering her fifth season with the program and fourth season of action, Genevieve Bane is a player with quite a few of those milestones approaching. The redshirt senior out of Danville will likely cross over the 300 sets played mark as a Gael and needs just 2.5 more points to get to 1000 for her career. Bane also cracked the top-10 in program history at the end of last season, now ranked eighth with 97 career aces, just three away from 100 for her career. Bane has averaged a little over 32 aces per season in her time in Moraga, and, if she stays on that pace, would finish second in program history with 129. Last but certainly not least for Bane, she needs 176 kills to reach 1000 for her career, well below her career average of 275 per season. Also notable to keep an eye on, sophomore middle blocker Tessa Schouten finished out her freshman campaign with a 0.304 attack percentage. Only five players in Saint Mary's Volleyball history have gone their entire career with a 0.300 attack percentage (Kjersti Strong, Shannon Lowell, Megan Burton, Aubrey Eubanks and Meghan Coolbaugh) but Schouten will quest to be the sixth starting with year two this season.
COACH'S CORNER
ABOUT THE FIGHTING HAWKS
North Dakota Volleyball embarks on year four of the Jesse Tupac era, in search for their first winning season since joining the Summit League in 2018, looking to recapture the magic of their final five years in the Big Sky Conference, when they went 125-51 in that span. A year ago, UND went 9-18, winning just two of their final 16 matches after a 7-4 start. That said, Coach Tupac will have some experienced players to work with in 2025, returning five starters from last year's roster, headlined 2024 kills leader Paige Barber and digs leader Izzie McCormick. The biggest question surrounding this year's Fighting Hawk squad is who will be at the setter position, with both members of last year's 6-2 rotation, Reagan Norris and Teagan Timperley no longer with the program. In the offseason, Coach Tupac brought in Middle Tennessee transfer Reagan McIntosh and true freshman Sadie White, who will likely both see action in their first years in Grand Forks. This matchup will represent the first all-time meeting between the Gaels and Fighting Hawks, as Saint Mary's Head Coach Tyler Hildebrand looks for win number one of his SMC tenure in the Sioux Center.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Bowling Green Falcons will play a twin bill on Friday, taking on Temple and North Dakota State in Fargo, before making the trek 80 miles north to Grand Forks for a neutral site tilt with the Gaels on Saturday. Alex DelPiombo takes the reins of the program after serving as an assistant on former head coach Danijela Tomic's staff since 2016. On the back of a 25 win season in 2024, Tomic departed for the University of Cincinnati, with DelPiombo named as her successor. While it is a new head coach at the helm for the Falcons, a trio of All-MAC starters from a year ago return, headlined by defending MAC Player of the Year Lauryn Hovey. The Falcons did also graduate three all-conference honorees, including libero Lindsey LaPinta. Who fills that role for Bowling Green has yet to be seen, however, likely the front running candidates are returners Sydnie Hernandez or Avery Anders, who each racked up triple digit digs a year ago. Last season ended with heartbreak and near redemption for the Falcons. After winning the MAC regular season title, the Falcons were shocked by Western Michigan in a five set thriller in their first conference tournament match, costing them their fifth ever NCAA Tournament berth. Instead, Bowling Green played in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship, where they nearly ran the table, falling in five to Arizona in the title match. Like the meeting with UND, this will also be the Gaels first time matching up with Bowling Green.
ABOUT THE BISON
Rounding out the trio of Gaels opening week opponents are the North Dakota State Bison, as SMC will travel south to Fargo for the finale. Jennifer Lopez enters her ninth season in Fargo, after her third straight conference postseason berth. After a 12-14 overall season, the Bison return four starters from last year's squad, including one of the top returning servers in the country, outside hitter Lauren Jansen. Jansen led the entire Summit League and ranked 46th in the country averaging 0.45 aces per set. While she returns as well as last year's leading blocker Arianna Blohm, both NDSU's leaders in kills, Ali Hinze, and digs, Logan O'Brien, graduated, leaving big shoes to fill. As such, Coach Lopez brought in a recruiting class of five, three outside hitters and two defensive specialists in search of Hinze's and O'Brien's replacements. Unlike the first two opponents of the season for the Gaels, SMC has seen North Dakota State, just once in 2016, when they bested the Bison in four sets on a neutral court in Fort Collins.
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