LACEY, Wash. - In their fifth set in seven days, the Saints responded twice after dropping a set to force a deciding set against Montana State Billings before ultimately falling (25-21, 26-28, 25-22, 19-25, 15-11) inside Marcus Pavilion.

The Saints (8-14, 3-11) and the Yellowjackets (7-16, 3-10) were evenly matched in the early goings, with SMU leading 10-9 before MSUB responded with the first run of the match. A 6-2 stretch for the Yellowjackets gave them the first edge of the match before Saint Martin's, behind a kill and block from Emily Gooding tied the match at 16-16. MSUB came back with a small 4-0 run before the Saints matched with their own 4-0 to keep the match locked at 20-20. Billings wrapped up the first set victory by claiming five of the final six points.

Megan Vernoy provided the spark in the Saints' offense that was missing in the first set, in the early goings of the second set with three kills to jump the Saints out to an 8-2 lead. The Yellowjackets stormed back to gain the 10-9, fueled by a 8-1 run, before eventually extending their lead to 22-17. Gooding started the Saints' comeback off with a kill, leading to kills from Rachel Gondrezick and Kamille Langford until a service ace by Nicolette Nesbitt tied the match at 24-24. The set remained tied at 25-25 and 26-26 when a combo block from Vernoy and Langford was followed by blocks by Rebecca Mitchell and Gooding clinched the 28-26 victory.

Mutliple runs by the Yellowjackets gave them an early lead in the third set before the Saints battled back to tie the match on four seperate occasions. With the set gridlocked at 20-20, the Yellowjackets rattled off three straight points to extend their lead to 23-20. Despite two kills from Mitchell in the closing points, the Saints fell short in the third set 25-22.

A Courtney Misner service ace, with a kill and block from Vernoy and Langford jumpstarted the Saints in the fourth set, leading to a 5-1 lead. Mitchell helped extend the Saints lead to 11-6 with two kills and a block with Gooding before the Yellowjackets clawed to within two points. At 13-11, SMU fired off five straight unanswered points to extend to seven. The Yellowjackets once again cut the score to within two points; however, SMU held off the comeback and closed out the set with four more kills by Mitchell and a kill by Brooklynn Tacke.

In the deciding set, Saint Martin's claimed the first three points until Montana State Billings responded with a 8-1 run. The Saints closed the gap to within two points, but were unable to overcome the deficit as the Yellowjackets held on for the match victory.

Rebecca Mitchell collected her fourth 20-kill performance of the season, along with tying a season-high in digs with 18 and four blocks, and one service ace. Rachel Gondrezick and Emily Gooding combined for 20 kills. Kamille Langford broke her career-high in blocks with nine, one shot of tying the school record, including one solo block, to go along with her eight kills. Also just falling short of the tying a school record was Hannah Neumann who ended with 38 digs, while not allowing a single reception error. Nicolette Nesbitt managed a team-leading 45 assists and two service aces.

The Saints will have a week off before having to travel to Nampa, Idaho. with a matchup against Northwest Nazarene, before heading to Central Washington, who the Saints defeating in five sets at home earlier this season. First serve is scheduled in Nampa is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. with live stats and video links available on smusaints.com.