MORAGA, Calif. – With Cal's volleyball team looking for a spark to close out the nonconference portion of the schedule, junior Mary McKennon came through with arguably the match of her career.

McKennon unleashed a career-high five aces and the Bears scored a whopping 21 points off her serve, helping Cal to a 25-14, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22 victory over Saint Mary's on Friday at McKeon Pavilion.

It was the most aces by a Cal player in any match since Nikki Gombar had six aces against Oregon State in 2012.

“I have been focused on my serve during practice,” said McKennon, who also added 12 digs. “Honestly, I was just feeling it tonight more than other nights. I was in a groove and kept hitting it harder and harder with every point.”

With the Bears (8-2) leading 17-11 in the first set, McKennon served eight straight points to help Cal close out an easy victory. The Bears fell behind 4-3 in the third set but a four-point serving run by McKennon helped Cal take the lead. Later in the third set, McKennon served three straight points – including two aces - to help break a 15-15 tie.

“Mary just really stepped up,” Cal coach Rich Feller said. “She was really dialed in. She did a great job of following our instructions and hitting her mark. She turned it around pretty well for us.”

Senior opposite hitter Christina Higgins led the Bears with 15 kills at a .394 hitting percentage to go along with four blocks. Junior middle blocker Lillian Schonewise added 12 kills and four blocks and freshman outside hitter Christine Alftin had 12 kills and eight digs.

Higgins had six of her kills in the fourth set to help the Bears seal the win. She now has 978 career kills, putting her closer to becoming the 16^th player in Cal history to amass 1,000 kills in her career.

“We've had a couple of talks about mentality and what she needed to do,” Feller said. “She really picked it up at the end. She had a look in her eye that she wasn't going to be denied. She was really putting some heat on the ball.”

Sophomore middle blocker Jenelle Jordan got her first start of the season for injured junior Lara Vukasovic and responded with six kills at a .625 percentage and five blocks.

“She was awesome,” McKennon said. “She brings a fire to the court unlike anyone I've ever played with. She went in there and did what we asked her to do and even more. She was awesome out there.”

The teams were tied at 20-20 in the third set before Cal scored five in a row to close it out. Setter Alyssa Jensen had a service ace during the run. The Bears finished with seven aces overall. With the fourth set tied at 21-21, the Bears scored three in a row on a kill by Schonewise, an ace from McKennon and a kill by Alftin. After the Gaels (4-6) scored a point, Alftin ended the match with another kill.

“This match was leading into conference play so we knew how important this was to us,” McKennon said. “We had a little hiccup in the second set, but we knew we had to win this game.”

The Bears open Pac-12 Conference play Tuesday at No. 1 Stanford at 6 p.m. The match will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks.