BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Despite an improved performance from Rachel Gondrezick and another double-digit kill mark for Megan Vernoy, the Saints fell to 12th ranked Western Washington in straight sets, 25-15, 25-19, 25-16, on Saturday.
 
Gondrezick led the team with a hitting percentage of .323 and was tied with Vernoy with 12 kills. It marked the fifth match for Vernoy and fourth for Gondrezick this season with double-digit kills. However, Western Washington (7-3, 2-0) proved to be too much for the Saints (2-6, 0-2) to handle, falling in three sets.
 
In the opening set, Western Washington jumped out to an early 7-1 lead before a service ace from Courtney Misner helped jumpstart the Saints. Kills from Molly Cichosz and Vernoy allowed the Saints to close the gap to within two. However, the rest of the set favored Western Washington, with the Vikings closing out the set on a 10-4 run.
 
SMU quickly responded in the second set, using plays from Rachel Gondrezick, Vernoy and Alyssa Bartlett to take an early 7-5 lead. The Vikings stormed back with a 6-0 run to gain their first lead of the set. After trailing by as many as five, the Saints trimmed the lead to one three times, first, on a combo block by Bridgette Bourgouin and Gondrezick, and then kills by each. The nationally ranked Vikings rallied to take six of the last seven to win the set.
 
The Vikings looked like they had the third set locked up easily, cruising out to a 19-7 lead. Saint Martin's began chipping away at the deficit with kills from Gondrezick and Cichosz. The Saints managed to trim the lead down to seven before Western Washington eventually wrapped up the three set victory with a 25-16 set win.

"Western is a really good team," said head coach Jon Killingbeck. "We battled and had some good individual stats tonight. As a system, we have something we need to work on."
 
Once again, senior hitters Gondrezick and Vernoy led the team with 12 kills each. Bartlett recorded 27 assists and Misner finished with a team high 15 digs. Kylie Alos also reached double-digits in digs with 11 and Bourgouin and Gondrezick combined for seven blocks.
 
The Saints come home for the first time in the 2018 season, opening the season with eight straight matches on the road. SMU hosts Concordia on Thursday, September 13 at 7:00 p.m. inside Marcus Pavilion on TwinStar court. Live stats and video will be available for free on smusaints.com.