The St. Lawrence volleyball team topped the Keuka Wolves in straight sets in their penultimate regular season match on Friday evening in Ronald T. Burkman Gymnasium.

Volleyball is a sport of runs, and in the first set the Saints used a four-point run, which included back-to-back service aces from senior Natalie Piper to take a 5-2 lead. They capitalized on the next three available side outs, and were able to extend the lead to 11-5. St. Lawrence reached set point with a ten-point lead, but a five point Keuka run closed the gap to just six. A Piper kill on the next volley gave the Saints the 25-19 set win.

The Wolves were down 8-11 in the second set, but a quadruplet of Saints' errors gave them their first lead of the match since leading 2-1 in the first set. The Saints were able to counter with five straight, including another Piper ace to take back the lead and push it to 16-12. More back and forth followed, and Keuka looked to take the second set with a 23-22 lead. Junior setter Allie Posnick assisted senior Courtney Benson's kill to pull the Saints even, and a pair of Katrina Henrich aces gave the Saints a 25-23 second set win.

The back-and-forth battle continued into the third set, with no one able to gain more than a three-point advantage until an ace from senior Madison Amico put the Saints up 22-17. A few points later the Posnick to Benson connection gave the Saints match point, and a Piper kill, again assisted by Posnick, gave the Saints the final set 25-20.



"It was great to be back in Burkman Gymnasium after being on the road for two and a half weeks," head coach Shelly Roiger said. "I thought we did a nice job of getting off to a good start in each set and establishing a tone all three times. Keuka played excellent defense and we knew how scrappy they would be going into the match. They certainly made some great defensive plays throughout the night that resulted in a lot of long rallies but I thought we had some really nice 'hustle plays' of our own. We won several small moments that are tough to replicate in practice, plays where you just have to react and rely on athleticism and instinct, and I think those moments were a key factor in the end result of the match. We look forward to welcoming SUNY Cortland tomorrow. They are an excellent team that brings a lot of athleticism and energy to the gym and we couldn't ask for a better opponent heading into our final match of the regular season in preparation for LIberty League playoffs next weekend."

Annika Kreppein led the Saints offense with 15 kills and a pair of aces. Piper had 14 kills and three aces, and Amico contributed three aces as well. Allie Posnick had 30 of the Saints' 37 assists. Libero Reagan Collier-Hogan was the staple of the backrow, and had 19 digs.

For the tenth time this season the Saints have had ten or more service aces, finishing the night with a dozen.

Megan McCann and Dayna Edholm had seven and six kills, respectively, to lead the Wolves. Casey Hunziker and Delaney Yorks split setting duty, and combined for 24 of the team's 28 assists.

Records: St. Lawrence (16-9), Keuka (9-15)

Up Next: Senior Day vs Cortland on October 30 at 2:30 p.m. in Canton, N.Y