SAN MARCOS, Calif. - In the 2017 season opener, the Saint Martin's Volleyball team battled to the wire with St Cloud State (25-20, 25-22, 26-24) before ultimately dropping the match in three sets to begin the CSUSM Classic.

St Cloud State (1-0) jumped out to an early 5-1 lead before the Saints (0-1) cut the score to 8-6 behind kills from Megan Vernoy and Kamille Langford. Five times the Saints managed to get within two before going on a 5-0 run, highlighted by Courtney Misner's service ace to tie the set at 19-19. The Huskies closed out the set on a 6-1 run to clinch a 1-0 lead.

The Huskies again jumped out to an early 8-4 advantage before the Saints went on a 4-1 run, capped-off by kills from Vernoy and Langford once again, to trim the score to 14-12. St Cloud State looked to put away SMU, 23-16 later in the set but the Saints rallied behind a Rachel Gondrezick kill and Huskies attacking errors to cut the lead to 23-20, before falling 25-23 in the second set.

An Emily Gooding kill and attacking errors by St Cloud State gave Saint Martin's an early 4-1 lead but neither team gained a serious advantage with the score remaining with a few points until the Huskies took a 20-15 lead. Kills by Gondrezick and Vernoy jumpstarted the Saints' comeback attempt and led to a kill for Rebecca Mitchell and multiple errors by the Huskies to tie the set at 23-23. After trading points the Huskies completed the finishing blow on kills from Becca Gruber and Krista Kuglin to secure the 3-0 victory.

"St Cloud State is very scrappy team that is very balanced," said head coach Jon Killingbeck. "We were happy to see seven blocks by us but our offense has to get going."

Mitchell led the team with nine kills, followed by Gondrezick with eight and Langford at five. Senior Nicolette Nesbitt recorded 25 assists and transfer Misner tallied the lone service ace and led the team with 11 digs. 

The Huskies managed 59 points compared to the Saints' 35 and led in kills, 48-to-27, aces, 9-to-1, assists, 45-to-27, and digs, 51-to-35. The Saints recorded seven blocks, the most since November 10, 2016 against Simon Fraser.

The Saints continue action at the CSUSM Classic with a 4:00 p.m. match against Fresno Pacific University. Live stats are available here.