The St. Lawrence University esports team was defeated 3-0 by Shenandoah "A" in its first varsity contest on Monday night.

The competition was a best-of-five Overwatch match, the first of the season for the Saints in National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) Overwatch Fall Cup play.

The first point contested was on a control map. Shenandoah was able to shut the Saints out on the first map, but St. Lawrence was able to gain the point for a short period of time on the second run, filling their meter up to 17% before Shenandoah gained the point to take the first point of the contest.

The second map offered a payload challenge. Shenandoah escorted the payload first, reaching the final checkpoint with 2:16 left of the clock. The Saints reached the first checkpoint, but were unable to match the Hornets' performance, running out of time before reaching the second checkpoint. Jason Angelos (neonJason) earned Play of the Game honors in the second game for the Saints.



The third map was a hybrid map. The Saints attacked first and quickly ran their meter up to 54%, but Shenandoah recovered and prevented St. Lawrence from capturing the point. The Hornets were able to beat the mark set by the Saints on their turn to attack to close out the win.

"I'm really proud of St. Lawrence's performance tonight against the more established team of Shenandoah," said Saints' Overwatch coach Kyle Jicha. "We were able to execute some great plays, particularly in our attack on Junkertown where we were able to leverage a dive composition to quickly overwhelm the enemy and take the first checkpoint. Ultimately though, Shenandoah was able to leverage better utilization of high ground, sight lines, and hero counter picks to best us. Lots of learning opportunities for us, so we'll take them and keep rolling."

The Saints, now 0-1 overall and in NACE play, will face Providence College in an ECAC match on Wednesday, then return to NACE play against Texas A&M San Antonio on Thursday. Both matches are scheduled for an 8 p.m. start.

St. Lawrence Lineup
Jason Angelos (neonJason)
Conner Black (SLU)
Aoife Currie (TransRights)
Gavin Prescott (Hardvark)
Sam Putney (SputnikGT)
Brian Uceta (Drizzle)