Oct. 15, 2005

Box Score

SPOKANE, Wash. - The Gonzaga University volleyball team picked up the biggest win of the Kip Yoshimura era on Saturday night as they Bulldogs (10-11, 2-3 WCC) upset No. 25 Saint Mary's College (13-4, 4-1 WCC) in four games at the Martin Centre. It was only the third time in program history that the Bulldogs have defeated a ranked opponent, the last coming on Sept. 11, 1993 when they defeated No. 22 Texas Tech University in four games. Gonzaga won the match 25-30, 30-16, 30-27, 30-25.

After dropping game one, Gonzaga rallied behind the hot hitting of senior Lacey Bell to hit .410 as a team during the 30-16 game two win. Bell hammered down five kills as Gonzaga had 18 as a team with only 2 errors in the game. Bell continued to spark the Bulldogs in games three and four as she finished with 15 kills.

Gonzaga used the steady hitting of Becky Jones and Michelle Boevers in game three as they jumped out to a quick lead and battled to win the match. GU and SMC traded the lead eight times in the game before Gonzaga could pull ahead. Jones and Boevers each had 19 kills for the Zags. Jones also added 19 digs to pick up her 12th double-double of the season.

"This was by far the best win our program has had in a long time," said an excited Bulldogs head coach Kip Yoshimura. "We have been close to knocking off a ranked team several times in the last couple of years and tonight we finally pushed through and finished one of them off."

Gonzaga indeed game out prepared to finish off the Gaels in game four as they quickly built a double-digit lead. Gonzaga led 26-14 before Saint Mary's rallied to cut the lead to 26-21. The two teams then traded points before Boevers ended the night with a cross court kill.

Missie Stidham helped serve the Gaels back into the contest during game four and was a big factor during Saint Mary's game one win as she lead all players with 25 kills. Kaui Salzman contributed 11 kills to round out the top Saint Mary's attackers.

Both teams battled at the net with each team finishing with 16 team blocks. Briawna Mueller led the Zags with nine blocks including three solo blocks while Jones also had three solo blocks. Christina Kirk had 11 blocks for Saint Mary's, 10 of them coming on block assists. Stidham also had seven block assists and one block solo.

In addition to knocking off a ranked team for the first time in 12 years, Gonzaga also reached double figure wins for the first time since 1996 when GU finished the season 13-19.

"Tonight's win shows our players that they can compete with anybody in our league if we stick to our game plan and play to our strengths," Yoshimura added. "Last night we let a win slip away against San Francisco. I can't tell you how proud I am of our team for turning out the type of effort we had tonight. A lot of times after a hard loss like the USF one a team just comes out flat. We didn't do that tonight and picked up a big win."

Gonzaga returns to the road next week with three matches. The week starts with a Tuesday night match at Eastern Washington University before weekend West Coast Conference action at Loyola Marymount University and Pepperdine University.