SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga volleyball kept things tight in each set in a WCC home matchup with Saint Mary's Saturday afternoon, but late pushes from the Gaels (5-5, 2-0 WCC) held the Bulldogs (3-9, 0-2 WCC) off just enough for a four-set loss (19-25, 20-25, 25-20, 21-25) in the Martin Centre.
The Zags managed to tie the score at least seven times in each set with a total of 16 lead changes between them, but SMC closed out strong in sets one, two and four en route to their second-straight conference road win. Zoe Thiros (14 kills) and Kennedy Croft (11 kills) both cracked double-digits to lead GU on offense, with Kelsie White, McKenna Marshall and Grace Ehler combining for 17 more. Keau Kamake'eaina generated 34 of the Zags' 39 assists while serving up a pair of aces.
Also serving up two aces of her own, Alisa Kim was one of three Zags to pick up double-digit digs in the process, finishing with a game-high 19 while Croft and Kamake'eaina added 10 each.
In a back-and-forth first set, GU took a 15-14 lead after Kamake'eaina's first ace, but Saint Mary's responded by scoring nine of the next 11 to jump back ahead and force set point at 24-18. A Gaels attack error got GU one point closer, but a kill from SMC's Hawley Harrer put things away for set one. The Gaels maintained the pressure with a 5-1 start to set two, but a 5-0 run from GU gave them a lead that Saint Mary's couldn't cut into until late. Thiros' first service ace of the day gave GU a two-point advantage they'd hold onto for much of the set, until a 3-0 run gave the Gaels the lead and another 4-0 run put the set out of reach.
The Bulldogs led again midway through the third set after a 6-0 swing — their biggest run of the day — put them up 11-8, but this time they were the ones stepping on the gas late. Thanks to game-high .321 hitting and 13 kills, 10 of which came from Thiros and Croft, the Zags managed to pull off a 4-0 run capped off by back-to-back aces from Kim to reach set point and close out.
A decisive fourth set was just as back-and-forth as the first three, with GU rallying from down 11-7 to take its first lead on back-to-back kills from White and Croft at 15-14. That lead lasted up until a kill from Marshall made it 20-19, when the Gaels scored six of the next seven — four of them on kills and another two on attack errors — to seal the game.
