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SMC California Athletics

Saint Mary's College Athletics Gaels
Mya Allen Swing vs Oklahoma
Cody Townsend
Mya Allen: 24 Kills (Career-High), 9 Digs
2
Saint Mary's (CA) SMC 1-8,0-0 WCC
3
Winner Cal Poly CPO 7-3,0-0 Big West
Saint Mary's (CA) SMC
1-8,0-0 WCC
2
Final
3
Cal Poly CPO
7-3,0-0 Big West
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
Saint Mary's (CA) SMC 25 27 17 18 13 (2)
Cal Poly CPO 13 25 25 25 15 (3)

Game Recap: Women's Volleyball |

VB | Allen Has Career Night, Gaels Fall Short in Five Sets to Cal Poly

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — An evening that began with much promise for the Gaels (1-8) ended with celebration for Cal Poly (7-3), as Saint Mary's pushed ahead 2-0 against the SLO Classic host Mustangs before falling in reverse sweep fashion. It was the second time in three years that the Gaels have fallen to the Mustangs in reverse sweep fashion to Cal Poly on the opening night of the SLO Classic, as now Saint Mary's will look to retain the good and flush the bad for their next two matches of this tournament. 

The Gaels came out looking like a dominant force in set one. After dropping the opening point, Saint Mary's quickly rattled off five straight points, and would never look back in a dominant 25-13 opening frame. The Gaels hit a staggering 0.471 in the opening stanza, with true freshman Mya Allen picking up where she left off after a strong weekend in Oklahoma last week, going for 10 first set kills, an ace and three digs, all team-highs. 





Set two was substantially closer between these two California combatants. The Gaels fell into an early 6-3 hole, but rebounded to level things off at six all. Following that 3-0 run, Saint Mary's seemed to have the upper hand, eventually taking a 15-12 three point lead, but the Mustangs stayed steadfast in their resolve, eventually regaining the lead at 18-17 in this mad dash to 25. Matching each other punch for punch, the Gaels and Mustangs remained level at 25 before back-to-back kills from Genevieve Bane and Mya Allen would end the set and give Saint Mary's a commanding 2-0 lead. Allen again led the charge with six kills in the set, while Bane and Gracie Vohs each chipped in five. The Gaels hitting cooled off just a touch, but still sat at 0.367 for the set and 0.422 for the match. 







After the Gaels built an early 7-5 lead in set three, Cal Poly responded with a 3-0 run to take the lead at 8-7, and while Saint Mary's would draw level four more times in that set, the Mustangs made a statement with long scoring runs, winning 25-17. Mya Allen again was the Gaels set kills leader, but had her quiet set of the first three with just four kills. 



Set four was all Cal Poly from the get go, as the Mustangs jumped ahead 11-5 early, never allowing the Gaels to claw back into the set, taking it 25-18, and forcing a winner take all set five. The Gaels were held below double-digit kills in the fourth set, limited to just nine, three each from Mya Allen and Genevieve Bane. 

With all the momentum on their side, Cal Poly immediately set the tone in set five, scoring the first two points and keeping the Gaels at arms length at 8-6 at the switch. Down 9-7, the Gaels, willed by a kill and an ace from Abby Castillon, rattled off three straight points to take their first lead of the set. After a sideout from Cal Poly, Genevieve Bane would pick up a kill to make it 11-10 in favor of the Gaels, but this would prove to be their final lead, as sparked by three costly SMC service errors, Cal Poly would win the set 15-13, clinching their second reverse sweep victory of the season, and leaving the Gaels with their second five set loss in three tries. The Gaels turned to their veteran Bane in the final set, who led the way with three kills, but couldn't quite get any secondary attackers involved in the final frame. 





It was a career night for Mya Allen, who led the Gaels with 24 kills, and finished second on the with nine digs, both career-high marks. Genevieve Bane did a little bit of everything for SMC, finishing just behind Allen with 17 kills to go along with two aces, three blocks and five digs. Gracie Vohs rounded out the double-digit killers for SMC with 12, matching her career-best, paired with two blocks. Ivona Lazovic once again was the Gaels primary setter with 42 of their team's 54 assists, and eight digs to help out defensively. The defensive leaders for the Gaels were Alayna Pearson with 10 digs and Kaliko Kealoha with four blocks. From the service line, service specialist Abby Castillon recorded three of the Gaels seven aces. Saint Mary's set a new season high for kills and kills per set in a match, while hitting above 0.250 for the second time in three matches. Unfortunately, the Gaels also matched their season high with 20 service errors.

A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE
Two true freshmen for the Gaels were able to show off their already stellar chemistry, as outside hitter Mya Allen and setter Ivona Lazovic steered the Gaels to another strong offensive performance. Allen tallied a career-best 24 kills, bringing her tally to 49 over her last three matches and chipped in nine digs. Allen surpassed Genevieve Bane's 20 against North Dakota State for most kills in a match this season, and became the first freshman since 2015 to record a 20+ kill match (Lindsey Knudsen vs Pepperdine). Feeding a majority of the sets to Allen was Ivona Lazovic, who finished her night with 42 assists. The 42 assists were second most in her young Saint Mary's career, as were her six kills and eight digs. While it is still early in both of their debut campaigns, this dynamic duo of Allen and Lazovic spell positive things for the near and far future of Saint Mary's Volleyball. 

BANE IS EVERYWHERE
While Genevieve Bane did not lead the Gaels in any single category tonight, she did a bit of everything tonight in trying to will her squad to victory. The veteran finished second on the team with 17 kills, two aces and three blocks, while ranking fifth with five digs. This ability to thrive in all six rotations has made Bane the all-conference caliber player that she is. Bane also continued to climb in the program history books for service aces, as her two tonight moved her to fifth all-time with 109. 

UP NEXT
The Gaels will take on Cal Baptist tomorrow at 1:30 in San Luis Obispo. The Lancers dropped their opener in the SLO Classic in four sets to 20th ranked Utah. 

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