SAN MARCOS, Calif. - Behind Rachel Gondrezick's 16-kill performance, the Saint Martin's Saints swept Fresno Pacific 3-0 to earn their first win of the 2017 season at the Cal State San Marcos Cougar Classic. 

The Sunbirds (1-1) jumped out to an early lead in the first set, 7-3, before the Saints (1-1) continued to grind away at the score. With the scoreboard reading 14-12, favoring Fresno Pacific, the Saints rattled off five straight points on two kills from Gondrezick and Rebecca Mitchell each and a service ace from Mitchell to take a 17-14 lead. With the set tied at 21-21, Emily Gooding started a 4-1 run with a kill, and Kamille Langford ended the set with a kill of her own.

Backed by a quick 5-0 run, the Saints controlled the early goings of the second set 10-5. The Sunbirds cut the score to 11-10 but the Saints never relinquished the lead and used a 6-1 run to pull away and secure the second set victory 25-21.

Both teams battled to gain an advantage early until SMU went on a 8-0 run, highlighted by four kills from Gondrezick and three kills from Gooding. The Sunbirds responded with a 4-0 run before the Saints answered back with their own 10-1 run to close out the set and the sweep for their first victory of the young season.

"Fresno Pacific is a big team with talent all over the court," said head coach Jon Killingbeck. "We were really proud of the team effort we had in all aspects of the game tonight. We played well from the first touch to the kill."

Gondrezick led the match with 16 kills, the most for a Saint since Rebecca Mitchell (16) and Gondrezick (18) both accomplished the feat on October 22, 2016 against Concordia. Gooding recorded three service aces, Langford led the team with three blocks while Nesbitt recorded a game-high 31 assists. Courtney Misner tallied 17 digs.

The Saints dominated in every stat category, starting with points (55-to-39), kills (42-31), aces (6-to-3), blocks (7-to-5), assists (41-to-29) and digs (50-to-42).

Saint Martin's will conclude their appearance in the Cal State San Marcos Cougar Classic on Saturday with two matches. First match is at 10:00 a.m. against Adelphi before facing host team Cal State San Marcos at 6:00 p.m. Live stats will be available on San Marcos' website.