Coming Up – Central Washington (October 5, Lacey, Washington, 7:00 p.m.), Northwest Nazarene (October 7, Billings, Montana, 2:00 p.m.).
COMPLETE MEDIA GUIDE
Live Stats/Live Video – Live Stats and Live Video of both of SMU's Volleyball Matches will be available with links found on smusaints.com. Live stats and video will be produced by the Host School.
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Ticket Information - SMU students get in free to all SMU home games with a valid student ID card and tickets are available for only five dollars. Seniors/Military/Non-SMU Students get in for three dollars. Children under the age of 11 get in free.
Saints Return Home After Four Game Road Trip – The Saints battled back after dropping the first set to take a 2-1 advantage before eventually falling in the fifth set to Seattle Pacific (25-16, 24-26, 19-25, 25-17, 15-7) on Tuesday. The Saints charged out to an early 6-1 lead in the first set behind kills from
Rachel Gondrezick and
Emily Gooding. The Falcons with a 12-4 to gain control of the set and went on to end 25-16. In the second set, both teams were locked at 9-9 before SPU went on a 5-0 run to secure a 14-9 lead.
Rebecca Mitchell ended the run with a kill and thus sparked a Saints' run to tie the set again at 16-16. The Falcons responded by taking five of the next seven points to lead 21-18. After trading points to 23-20, Mitchell delivered with a kill, which lead to a Gooding kill then back-to-back SMU blocks to give SMU a 24-23 lead. The Falcons tied the set up on a kill; however,
Megan Vernoy gave the Saints their 25th point and a block from Gondrezick sealed the 26-24 victory. The third set started with a 7-6 SPU edge before Saint Martin's Mitchell tied the set with a kill, sparking a 6-0 run for the Saints and a 12-7 lead. SMU managed to extend their lead out to 18-11 on a Gooding kill en route to their 25-19 set victory. With the Falcons' down to their final set and the fourth set beginning with a 10-10 gridlock, Seattle Pacific rallied behind a 9-2 run to force a fifth and deciding set. The Falcons struck the final blow quick in the fifth set by jumping out to an 8-1 lead before switching sides. After a kill for Mitchell and a SPU attack error brought the Saints to within five points, SPU answered back with a 5-0 run to secure the 15-7 set and match victory. "Tonight, we played a good Seattle Pacific team to five sets on their home court," said head coach
Jon Killingbeck. "We did some really good things tonight but we just did not finish. With that said, I can say we are growing every match." Leading the Saints for the six-straight match in kills was
Rebecca Mitchell with 13, followed by
Emily Gooding at 10 and Gondrezick with 9. Langford lead the team with seven blocks while Gooding and Gondrezick recorded five and four blocks respectively.
Jordan Keane managed a team-high 27 assists with
Hannah Neumann tallying 22 digs. The Saints' struggled to find their offensive rhythm on the road against GNAC opponent Montana State Billings in their three-set loss (25-17, 25-18, 26-24) on Saturday. The Saints jumped out to an early 5-2 lead over the Yellowjackets by capitalizing on attack errors and kills from
Rebecca Mitchell and
Kamille Langford. MSUB rallied to tie the score at 10-10 before going on a 5-1 run to establish a 15-11 lead. The Saints continued to chip away at the score with kills from
Megan Vernoy,
Emily Gooding and
Nicolette Nesbitt; however, the Yellowjackets ended the set on a 6-1 run to secure the 25-17 victory. MSUB took a 7-3 lead in the opening of the second set before a
Rachel Gondrezick kill and service ace from Gooding helped shave the lead to 7-6. The Saints cut the score to within one point on five different times before taking a 13-12 lead on a setting error by MSUB. The Yellowjackets used a 6-1 run to regain the lead and closed the set with another 6-1 run to go up 2-0 in the match. In the final set, both sides traded points until the 7-7 mark when the Yellowjackets scored four straight points to gain an advantage. The Saints responded by closing the gap to one point on kills from Vernoy and Gooding, also a service ace from
Brooklynn Tacke. Montana State Billings answered back by once again extending the lead to four before a Saint Martin's timeout allowed the Saints to regroup and rally back to tie the match at 20-20 on a
Ililani Kamaka kill. Each side swapped points until the scoreboard was tied at 23-23. The Yellowjackets claimed three of the final four points to lock up the 3-0 victory. "Give credit to MSUB, they ran a great offense tonight," said head coach
Jon Killingbeck. "This is a league that you will not win if any skills take a night off. Tonight, we did not excite our skills to our expected level and it showed on the scoreboard." Gondrezick and Vernoy each managed a team-leading nine kills while Kamaka was second with eight kills, a new season-high.
Nicolette Nesbitt led the Saints with 24 assists and Hananh Neumann recorded 10 digs throughout the match. The Yellowjackets topped the Saints in points (53-40), Kills (44-37), Blocks (6-1), Assists (42-36) and Digs (52-39).
Central Washington Preview – Entering the match on five-game winning streak, the national receiving votes, Wildcats come to Lacey, Washington with a 10-4 overall record and 5-1 in conference. Leading CWU in kills this year is Shelby Mauritson with 186 in 14 matches played. Maggie McTaggart and Sabrina Wheelhouse each have over 100 kills and look to play a pivotal role in the offense. Niki Cook and Gabrielle Aihara have managed a total of 578 assists combined while Aihara leads the team with 18 service aces. Defensively, Kyla Morgan's 263 digs is first on the team while Wheelhouse leads the team with 93 blocks, including 15 solo blocks. As a team, Central Washington is averaging 12.8 kills per set, 12.13 assists per set and over 17 digs per set.
Northwest Nazarene Preview – Looking to continue their perfect season and rise up the national rankings, No. 12 Northwest Nazarene will face Seattle Pacific before traveling to Marcus Pavilion on Saturday. Kendra Bodine and Madi Ferrell form the deadly two-headed attack for the Crusaders with 207 and 204 kills respectively. Ferrell carries an impressive .452 attack percentage on the year and is averaging over four kills per set. Passing the ball to Ferrell and Bodine is Hailey Cook, who is responsible for 565 of the Crusaders' 671 assists this season. Mari Thomas leads the way with 17 service aces. Five Crusaders have tallied more than 100 digs this year with Shayli Siegfried leading the team with 260. Farrell has proven to be a force offensively and defensive at net, leading the team with 69 blocks and 12 solo blocks. On the season the Crusaders have won 42 sets while only dropping eight.
GNAC Recap – Northwest Nazarene continued their perfect last week, improving to 14-0 overall and 6-0 in conference on the season. Western Washington and Central Washington remain close behind in second place with 5-1 records in conference action. Seattle Pacific and Alaska Anchorage stayed locked at the for fourth overall at 4-2 in conference while Simon Fraser sits sixth at 3-3. Montana State Billings and Concordia hold seventh and eighth place with 2-4 and 2-5 records respectively. Rounding out the standings is Saint Martin's (1-5), Alaska (1-5) and Western Oregon (1-6).
