BURNABY, Canada – Saint Martin's offense cooled off after a fast start as Simon Fraser came back to win the final three sets for a 3-1 victory on Saturday night.
The Saints (10-14, 3-11) began the night with a .344 hitting percentage in the opening set to put away Simon Fraser (17-5, 11-4) 25-20. However, Saint Martin's struggled to find that flow for the rest of the night, despite limiting SFU to only a .186 hitting percentage for the match.
With the first set close at 17-16, Saint Martin's began to pull away down the stretch. Fueled by kills from
Kylie Coon and
Maddy Gooding, along with an ace by
Kylie Alos, the Saints captured seven of the final 10 points to coast to the 25-20 win.
Both sides went back-and-forth for a majority of the second set, with Saint Martin's leading as late as 17-15. However, Simon Fraser closed out the set on a 10-2 run to tie up the match.
Simon Fraser controlled the third set winning 25-15 and went into the fourth set with a 2-1 lead. SFU continued their momentum into the final set, leading 11-6 to start. The Saints trailed by as many as seven but rallied to regain the lead on a 11-3 run and take a 21-20 overall edge. However the rally fell short as Simon Fraser took home the final five points to complete the 3-1 victory.
Maddy Gooding led the team with nine kills, followed by
Tia Allen and
Emily Gooding at eight.
Emily Gooding also shined at the service line, marking three aces.
Analise Hitchcock's 39 assists and
Kylie Alos' 25 digs were also team-leading marks. E. Gooding, and Hitchcock finished with 14 and 12 digs respectively.
Saint Martin's returns home for the final home stand of the 2021 season, starting with Central Washington on Thursday, November 11 at 7:00 PM. Live stats and video of the match will be available on smusaints.com.