The St. Lawrence volleyball team opened Liberty League action with a loss to Ithaca College 3-1 on Friday afternoon in Ithaca, New York. 

The Bombers took the first two sets 25-13, 25-20. In the first set, the Saints committed nine attack errors to Ithaca's two.

"Tonight's match was a complete roller coaster," head coach Shelly Roiger said. "We got off to a very poor start in set one, where we were sloppy and undisciplined and came out with too much excitement and an uncontrolled hype level. The team did a nice job of taking a few deep breaths and hitting the reset button and worked really hard in set two and we were tied late in that set but couldn't quite make the big plays when we needed to."

St. Lawrence forced a fourth set by winning the third 25-23. Natalie Piper killed a ball set by Allie Posnick for set point. Vivian Zymeck had three kills and an ace to lead the Saints.

"I think Ithaca got too comfortable in set three and we did some really good things in the 15-20 point range to take the lead and then finish," Roiger also said. "We were in a similar situation last Friday and didn't close out the set last week so it was good to see growth from a week ago."

The fourth set started by Ithaca jumping out to a 5-0 lead. The Saints could not generate much offense going, and Ithaca led by as many as 14 points. Match point came from Samantha Klemm's fifth kill of the set to take it 25-12.

"During the fourth set, we came out like we were content in taking a set," Roiger continued. "We weren't the aggressor and Ithaca got off to a great start to earn the victory. We had a lot of unforced errors and Ithaca has great balance amongst their hitters which proved to be too much for us. The battles in the Liberty League don't get any easier as we face a really talented RIT team tomorrow who had a big win tonight over Clarkson, but we're looking forward to the challenge and being back in Burkman Gymnasium."

Piper led all players with 10 kills, Zymeck added seven kills and a pair of service aces. Reagan Collier-Hogan led the Saints' defense with 13 digs. Posnick had 17 assists and three aces.

The Bombers offense was evenly distributed, five players had between seven and nine kills. Peyton Miller and Laura Severance shared setting duties, recording 21 and 20, respectively. Libero Jordyn Lyn Hayashi had 14 digs and two service aces.

Ithaca led St. Lawrence in kills (50-30), assists (47-21), and digs (56-44). Each team had eight aces.

Records: St. Lawrence (6-6, 0-1), Ithaca (7-6, 1-0)

Up Next: RIT at 4 p.m. in Ronald T. Burkman Gymnasium on September 25 for Family Weekend.