After winning the opening set, the St. Lawrence volleyball team lost to the Potsdam Bears 3-1 on Wednesday night in Potsdam, N.Y.

The first set was tied five times, as late as 11-11, but the Saints used a Rachel Boudreau kill and three Potsdam errors to gain a cushion that they never let up and won 25-20.

The Saints dug themselves into an early second-set hole, going down 5-0 with three errors. The Bears led 21-13 but St. Lawrence scored seven of the next eight to bring the score within two. Potsdam set up set point with back-to-back kills, and a service ace evened the game at a set a piece.

Again in set three, the Saints found themselves down early but battled back to trail 18-15, but Potsdam closed with seven straight to take the 2-1 set lead.

Lainey Roman's seventh kill of the fourth set brought the Saints to within one at 18-17. Potsdam got one back, but Adeline Riesenberger had a kill off Lily Snide's 23^rd assist of the match to keep it a one point game. The Bears scored six of the last seven scores to win the final set 25-19.

Vivian Zymeck had eight kills to lead the scarlet and brown's offense. Libero Maggie Layman had 25 digs to control the back row, and Jada Masiclat had a career high six blocks.

Head coach Shelly Roiger
"There's a saying that 'if we didn't have bad luck, we wouldn't have any luck at all' and that certainly proved true tonight. This team continues to fight through adversity with a short-handed lineup, and I'm proud of how several individuals had their best match of the season. However, we had far too many unforced errors and our offense was very productive. Our blocking and defense kept us in the match so those are the points of silver lining that we'll take from the match. This was a match where I felt like we beat ourselves, not where the opponent beat us. We practiced poorly on Tuesday and not surprisingly, our offense was nowhere to be found on Wednesday. It will be difficult to find wins this season until the team discovers and commits to the importance of being focused and purposeful on non-game days."

Records: St. Lawrence (1-7), Potsdam (7-1)
Up Next: Utica University on Friday, September 16^th at 6 p.m. in Oswego, N.Y.