MORAGA, CALIFORNIA -- The Southern Utah volleyball team finished its first match of a three game tournament on Friday night where they fell to Saint Mary's in five sets.

"This is part of our journey. We're young, and we're inexperienced. It's about how we move forward from that," head coach Pete Hoyer said. "We're not going to dwell on tonight, we're going to learn from it. We played well for a lot of the match, and we saw some really good things."

Janet Kalaniuvalu led the Thunderbirds in kills with a season high of 22 kills. Emma Mangum followed with nine kills. Freshman Miahna Waters finished with 17 digs. Rylee Rogers and Thea Leiataua added 10 digs each. Alexis Averett finished with an impressive four aces.

The Gails went on a 6-0 streak to begin the match before SUU fired back with a three point run. The second side out began with an ace from Averett before earning the Thunderbirds three more points. The Gails extended their lead in the first set to take a 1-0 edge over the Thunderbirds.

SUU showed up with a new confidence in the second set and kept control of the game. Waters dug several hard swings in competitive rallies leading her team on a 9-2 run through the middle of the second set. Mangum swung away and proved to be a key hitter for SUU's offense through the second set. Rolling off of enhanced communication and momentum, the Thunderbirds took the second set 25-19 to tie the match at 1-1.

Both teams entered the third set with elevated emotion. The Thunderbirds held their composure and improved their passing game throughout the first half of the set. The home crowd started to pick up as the Gails passed the Thunderbirds. Waters held down the defensive end for the Thunderbirds once again while Kalaniuvalu hit hard from the outside while putting away several free balls. Miranda Canez and Rogers both made big plays down the stretch as the Thunderbirds pulled off a tight 26-24 win.

"I really like the way our team came out in the second and third sets. They played super aggressive," Hoyer said. "I couldn't be more proud of this team."

The first set struggles seemed to return to SUU as the serves from SMC were tough for the Thunderbirds to handle. Rogers kept the team together with plenty of digs and senior position leadership on the court. SMC executed well, and SUU couldn't seem to put together their offensive confidence as the Gails secured the fourth set, 25-15.

"Saint Mary's is a really good volleyball team, and they are resilient. They came back in the fourth set, and we lost our confidence," Hoyer said. "They got after it and elevated their game. The combination left us a little bit short tonight."

The Gails and the Thunderbirds battled back and forth throughout the final set before SMC stretched the lead with a short rally to seal the match victory, 15-11.

The Thunderbirds wrap up tournament play tomorrow by facing Hofstra at 12:00 pm MT followed by the University of San Francisco at 8:00 pm MT.

"As a team, we were better than we were last weekend," Hoyer said. "This is an opportunity to come out with energy tomorrow and play like we did for much of the match tonight. We're going to be competitive."

Stay updated on the Thunderbirds 24/7 by following @SUUVolleyball on Twitter and Instagram along with liking the Southern Utah Volleyball page on Facebook.