The St. Lawrence University volleyball team kicked off the 2018 by co-hosting the North Country Invitational with neighboring Clarkson University, unfortunately the Saints fell to SUNY Geneseo 3-0 in the first match of the season, but the Saints rallied to top Marywood University 3-0 in their second match of the night at Burkman Gymnasium on Friday.

Match 1 vs. SUNY Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo 3, St. Lawrence 0)

The Knights captured the first victory of the night in three sets, topping the Saints by scores of 25-23, 25-16, 25-22.

First year Natalie Piper led the Saints' squad with 13 kills, two aces, and two blocks. Mac Barnes tallied six kills, while Marissa Parker and Amanda Teppo added three each. Maddy Bishop posted a team-high 15 assists, while Reagan Collier-Hogan and Ally Good each recorded four. Grace Kelly added nine digs, while Collier-Hogan finished the first match with seven.  

"It was a very, very sloppy start to our season," said head coach Shelly Roiger. "We cannot give away that many points to any opponent, much less a quality team like Geneseo. They capitalized on every mistake we made and the scoreboard showed the result.  It was disappointing to start the season that way and the team completely recognizes that it was 100 percent in our hands. There aren't any errors that we made that we can't correct but we must be more disciplined in the moment."

SUNY Geneseo was led by Grace Cergol with 12 kills and nine digs, while Emily Ast recorded 24 assists and Sam Mendelsohn added 13 digs.



Match 2 vs. Marywood University (St. Lawrence 3, Marywood 0)

The Scarlet and Brown captured their first win of the 2018 season by scores of 25-13, 25-18 and 25-20 over the Pacers.

In the second match of the night, Piper once again led the Saints in kills, tallying 10 to combine for 23 kills on the night. Julia Wagner led the Saints with five service aces, while Teppo tallied four blocks, Bishop added nine assists and Piper tallied five digs.

"We had some very nice service runs and I thought we clearly won the battle of the first contact," Roiger continued. "We were able to get into the flow of our offense frequently and we had contributions from several different players. It was a good 'bounce back' match for us and definitely a step in the right direction. We'll need to continue to raise the bar tomorrow in terms of expectations and execution as we get the wrinkles out of our weaknesses and improve with each and every set."

Gabriella Santos led the Pacers with eight kills, while Sara Burgos added 14 assists and Jordan Vossler recorded 13 digs.



The Saints finished day one of the 2018 season with a 1-1 record, while SUNY Geneseo swept day one of the North Country Invitational at 2-0 and Marywood finished 0-2 after day one. The Saints will face the United States Coast Guard Academy and Keuka College at 12 and 4 p.m., respectively on Saturday, September 1st.