ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Against one of the best teams in the GNAC, the Saints were unable to recover from early runs by the Wildcats, as Central Washington wins in straight sets over Saint Martin's.
 
The Saints' (2-11, 0-7) offense saw improvement, hitting .189 as a team and set high of .250 in the first set. However, the Wildcats (12-2, 6-1) proved to be too much for the Saints, as CWU used two early runs to establish control and win 25-15, 25-19, and 25-16.
 
The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead in the first set, opening with a 7-2 run. Kills by Rachel Gondrezick, Annika Briggs, and Ililani Kamaka trimmed the lead to only three. Central Washington managed to pull away in the middle of the set and cruised to a 25-15 victory.
 
In the second set, both sides traded kills, with the Wildcats holding on to a slim 6-5 lead. Molly Cichosz and Vernoy combined to pull the Saints within one point again at 12-11, before CWU began to widen the gap in the middle of the set. The Saints once again responded, trimming the lead back down to one on a kill from Gondrezick. The Wildcats closed out the set on a kill and pushed their lead to 2-0.
 
In the final set, the Wildcats once again began a set with 7-2 run. The Saints' offense was never able to find their flow and Central Washington secured the match sweep with a 25-16 set victory.
 
"At points tonight, our offense looked good," said head coach Jon Killingbeck. "We ended up hitting .189 against one of the best blocking teams in the league. The other phases of the game, we struggled at points tonight and against a team like Central Washington, you can't do that be successful."
 
Gondrezick ends the night with another double-double, 11 kills to go along with her 12 digs, both team leading marks. Vernoy was second with eight kills and Cichosz and Kamaka combined for 12 kills. Alyssa Bartlett ends with 34 assists and Courtney Misner records 11 digs.
 
The Saints hit the road for their next match, traveling to Northwest Nazarene on Saturday. Match is set to begin 6:00 p.m. PST with live stats and video available on smusaints.com.