With her second kill of the night, senior Natalie Piper recorded her 1,000th kill in a St. Lawrence uniform, as the Saints topped the Bears of SUNY Potsdam 3-0 on Tuesday night in Canton, N.Y.

Piper is the quickest to 1,000 in the program's 41-year history. She reached the milestone in just 268 sets, besting the previous record by 12. Piper has averaged 3.97 kills per set this season, and 3.74 kills per set over her career.

"I am so happy for Natalie," head coach Shelly Roiger said. "She is consistently one of our hardest workers day in and day out and it's so gratifying to see such a wonderful player and even better person reach this type of milestone. To achieve this level of personal success with just three years of competition is extremely impressive and she has always played with such high integrity and humility. She is a tenacious competitor and I know she's had the 1000th kill on her bucket list for quite some time. Not even a pandemic was going to deny her that and I couldn't be more proud of her for letting nothing stand in her way."

The Bears led the first set 22-19, when Roiger called a timeout to regroup. It worked, and the Saints took the next three points to lead 23-22. A service error by the Saints evened the set score, but a kill by Piper set up set point. An attack error by a Bear gave the set to the Saints 25-23. Piper and Annika Kreppein combined for 11 of the team's 12 kills.

The Saints looked to take the second set a bit easier, but with the score 24-15 the Bears went on a four-point run to make it a five-point game. On the next rally, junior Allie Posnick quick set first-year Rachel Boudreau, who got her fourth kill of the set, and give the Saints the 25-19 win.

The third set began with the teams exchanging points, no one leading by more than two points until a Piper kill gave the Saints a 14-11 lead. The Saints never let the set get within two again, and ended the set with five straight points to win 25-17.



"This was another victory that was earned in an ugly manner," Roiger said. "It was a Tuesday night match during midterm exams and that's exactly what it looked like. That being said, the team found a way to grind things out and sneak out a win. While we weren't flashy often, I give the team a lot of credit of keeping the ball in play and forcing Potsdam to make a play to keep the set alive and fortunately we came out ahead of those moments."

Kreppein led all players with 13 kills on 26 swings, and Piper finished the match with 12 kills, to bring her career total to 1010. Posnick had 23 assists to lead the Saints' setting.

Pipper and libero Reagan Collier-Hogan each had three services aces, and Madison Amico, Kreppein, and Vivian Zymeck added two apiece.

The Bears were led by Mikayla Myers' and Jessica Adder's offense, contributing nine and eight kills, respectively. Alyssa Rogers had 16 assists and Coleen Murphy had 10.

Records: St. Lawrence (10-8), SUNY Potsdam (5-10)
Up next: at Plattsburgh State at 7 p.m. on October 14