Natalie Piper's 14 kills on 20 attempts and zero errors puts her .700 hitting percentage as a new St. Lawrence volleyball record, breaking Allison Boulanger's .618 that has stood since 2004. Her 29 kills on the night led the Saints to their first two wins of the season, beating SUNY Canton and Oswego State in straight sets on day one of the North Country Classic in Burkman Gymnasium Friday evening.

"I am very proud of our team's effort, energy, and execution tonight," head coach Shelly Roiger had to say. "The victory over Canton was a complete team effort and the team played a very smart and intelligent match which resulted in a dominant win for us. We knew that Oswego would bring a well-coached and scrappy team to the gym and that is exactly what they did. Luckily we were able to control the battle of the first contact and that allowed us to be in system during most of the match. The crowd was awesome and we had some outstanding individual performances but more importantly, an excellent job of several players stepping up and doing their job to help our team be successful."

Match 1: St. Lawrence vs. SUNY Canton, 3-0 (25-15, 25-6, 25-21)

Piper led the all players with 14 kills, while Annika Kreppein had seven, along with four service aces. Allie Posnick led all players with 20 assists, and four service aces, including the final two points of the first set to take it 25-15.

The Saints came out on fire in the second set, and never let Canton's offense get going. The Saints made four out of the potential five side outs in the set, and easily won 25-6.

The Roos were not going to go down easy, and had the serve while down just 8-9 when the Saints went on a 11-point run that included three Piper kills. After that the Saints closed the set, winning 25-10, and taking the 3-0 victory.



Canton was led by Cassidy Werner's four kills and Michaella DeCapua's six assists.

St. Lawrence topped the Roos in service aces (15-1), digs (28-12), and kills (33-12), but Canton held the edge in blocks (2-1).

Match 2: St. Lawrence vs. Oswego State, 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-23)

Piper continued to lead the Saints with 15 kills, while Kreppein added 14. Piper and Katrina Henrich had three aces each. Junior Allie Posnick led the team with three blocks and 34 assists. Piper, Kreppein, and senior Reagan Collier-Hogan combined for 38 of the team's 46 digs.

The Saints took the first set 25-19 where Posnick assisted on over half of the Saints' points. The Lakers brought the second set to two points, trailing 10-12, but after a run from the Saints the set never got closer than four points.

It was the third set that gave the Saints the most trouble. The Lakers capitalized on a few errors and jumped out to a 12-7 lead. A six-point run by the Saints saw them retake the lead at 17-16. The teams continued to trade points, until the Saints took a 21-20 lead. With the Saints holding on to a 24-23 lead, Henrich was subbed into the match, and ended the match with her third ace.



Taylor Grace led the Lakers with 10 kills, and led all players with 6 blocks. Skylar Bechard and Madison Gordon had 8 digs apiece for Oswego State.

The Saints posted a 40-29 advantage in kills and topped Oswego in aces (10-1), and digs (46-39). The Lakers led in blocks (10-4)

"It is amazing what a difference a week of practice can make," Roiger added, "And we are getting closer to having our entire team back, so I'm looking forward to seeing the learning curve of this team progress. It was a great day to be a Saint and the team will rest and recover tonight in anticipation of two Saturday night matches tomorrow." 

St. Lawrence improved to 2-4 on the season, while Canton fell to 0-4 and Oswego State fell to 3-3.

The Saints return to Burkman Gymnasium for day two for the North Country Classic tomorrow afternoon, hosting SUNY Oneonta and Plattsburgh State at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., respectively.