MONMOUTH, Ore. – Trailing two sets to one, Saint Martin's offense exploded in the fourth and fifth sets to mount an epic 23-25, 25-18, 19-25, 25-19, 15-8 victory over Western Oregon to improve to 7-5 on the season.
Hitters
Emily Gooding and
Ilana Sagapolutele led the Saints' (7-5, 1-2 GNAC) offense down stretch, combining for 35 kills on 80 swings.
Tia Allen was the third Saint to finish with 15+ kills, along with her 19 digs.
Giselle Benetti, and
Kylie Alos also combined for a staggering 57 digs in the back row.
Saint Martin's offense had yet to click through the first three sets, going for 41 kills with 17 errors. However, the switch came on in the fourth set as SMU hit 16 kills on 41 swings for a .268 percentage, forcing a fifth set. And it only got better down the stretch. Saint Martin's closed out the match with 12 kills on 32 attempts for a .312 percentage.
The opening set went back-and-forth between SMU and Western Oregon (2-8, 0-3) with the Wolves eventually outlasting and taking the set 25-23.
Saint Martin's jumped out to an early 9-4 lead in the second set and never looked back. SMU led the entire rest of the way, and cruised to the 25-18 victory to tie it up.
Western Oregon trailed the third set 19-16 before mounting a comeback on nine straight points to take control of the match 2-1.
In the fourth set, Saint Martin's led 18-17, but closed out strong. SMU recorded seven of the final nine points to take the fourth set, and force a final set.
Using that momentum from the end of the fourth set, the Saints jumped out early with kills from Gooding and Sagapolutele.
Tia Allen, and
Maddy Gooding each added kills in the set, and it was
Gracie Brenner who capped off the win a putback kill, securing the 3-2 victory.
Saint Martin's continues their road trip, traveling to Seattle Pacific on Thursday, September 30. Live stats and video of the match will be available on smusaints.com.
Beyond the Numbers:
