MORAGA, Calif. – Despite a second set victory, Gonzaga fell to Saint Mary's in four sets as the Gaels evened their West Coast Conference record at 3-3 on Thursday inside UCU Pavilion. Saint Mary's secured the 3-1 victory with set scores of 27-25, 18-25, 25-15, 25-20.
 
THE ACTION
First Set – Saint Mary's, 27-25

• Grace Ehler, Zoe Thiros, and Juliette Russell got the Gonzaga (3-14, 0-6 West Coast Conference) offense going in the first, each picking up early kills. However, leading 5-3, Saint Mary's (9-9, 3-3 West Coast Conference) used a 5-0 run to force a Gonzaga timeout, now up 10-3.
• The Zags responded with three straight coming out of the timeout, with Jody Smith joining Russell, each recording a kill in front of an Alisa Kim ace. Thiros and Ehler pitched in to bring GU within two, now trailing 12-10. The Gaels responded with a 7-2 run to force another GU timeout.
• Once again, the Bulldogs responded out of the timeout with two straight points behind kills from Thiros and Maggie Rickert. Clarissa Klein dropped her third kill of the set as Saint Mary's reached the 20-point mark first (20-14). Gonzaga benefitted from a few attack errors amidst a 5-0 run to bring the score to within one.
• GU brought the set to its first tie (23-23) since 2-2 when Nia Damuni notched her first kill of the night. The Zags would take the 24-23 lead, their first since 1-0 on Smith's fourth kill of the set to force a Saint Mary's timeout.
• The Gaels scored two straight points out of the timeout to regain a 25-24 lead, before the Zags tied things back up on a Thiros kill. However, two straight points from Saint Mary's gave them a 27-25 set win and 1-0 match lead.
• Gonzaga and Saint Mary's each hit .294 in Set One, with the Gaels edging the Zags in kills 17-15. Thiros and Smith led GU with four kills each. Russell (three kills) and Ehler (two kills) pitched in to help the Bulldog offense. Damuni added 13 assists in the effort.

• Gonzaga took a quick 3-0 lead in the second behind kills from Ehler and Thiros. They would extend their lead to six (8-2) after a string of attack errors by Saint Mary's to force a timeout.
• Autumn Larson joined the Bulldog offense with her first kill of the night, and Kim added her third service ace to extend the lead to 14-6. The Gaels responded with four straight points behind Hannah Taylor and Kjersti Strong kills to shrink the advantage to just four and force a Zag timeout.
• Damuni dumped a ball past the Saint Mary's front line to put Gonzaga up 16-11. The Gaels responded with two before Thiros' seventh kill of the match halted their run. Smith followed suit with her sixth, and Russell chipped in one of her own to force another Saint Mary's timeout, leading 20-14.
• A 3-0 Gaels run was quickly thwarted by the Zags, who responded with three consecutive points of their own to regain a 23-17 lead. Saint Mary's Taylor gave the home squad one last effort, but a Smith/Larson block and a Gaels attack error gave GU the 25-18 win to even the score at 1-1.
• Thiros added three kills in Set Two to bring her total to seven, and Smith and Russell each recorded two. Damuni added eight assists to her running total of 21.

• Saint Mary's jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the third behind a pair of kills from Genevieve Bane. Their lead hovered around five despite the Zags shrinking it to just three. A 4-0 run forced a Gonzaga timeout as the Gaels opened a 17-10 lead.
• Leading by as many as eight, Saint Mary's continued to control Set Three with a 22-15 advantage to force GU's second timeout of the set.
• Out of the timeout, the Gaels used a pair of services aces by Olivia Wright and a Bane/Kristen Erland block to close out the third with a 25-15 win and take a 2-1 match lead.
• Smith and Thiros chipped in three kills for the Zags in the third, and Ehler added a pair of her own.

• Like the third, Saint Mary's grabbed another early lead in the fourth, this time up 8-2. Klein picked up her sixth and seventh kills of the match during that stretch, adding her eighth kill to give the Gaels a 10-4 advantage.
• Gonzaga and Saint Mary's traded points through the midway point of Set Four as the Gaels lead held at seven. Trailing 16-9, Thiros snagged her 13th kill of the night to keep the set within reach. She would grab number 14 just two rallies later to keep the Saint Mary's lead at just six.
• The set continued to go back-and-forth as the Zags still trailed by five, before a 4-2 GU run closed the gap to just three (19-16). An immediate 4-0 response by Saint Mary's looked to seal the match as Bane recorded back-to-back aces.
• Larson put a stop to the Gaels run with her seventh kill of the match, and Thiros followed suit with kills 15 and 16 to force a Saint Mary's timeout, now trailing by just four (23-19). Thiros picked up her 17th match kill to try and spark a rally, but Saint Mary's reached the 25-point mark to secure the fourth set and 3-1 victory.

 
UP NEXT
Gonzaga wraps up their brief California road trip on Saturday in Stockton as they take on Pacific at 12:30pm.
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