St. Lawrence University Athletics

The St. Lawrence University volleyball team took part in their first two games of the North Country Challenge, dropping both contests. They first fell to Clarkson 3-1 before dropping their second game against SUNY Brockport 3-0.

The Saints began their day in Potsdam, N.Y. playing the road-portion of their double header against the Golden Knights on their home court. They came out swinging and earned a set win to open the contest, going up 1-0 with a 25-22 victory. The Saints led for most of the set and earned the win on kill by Vivian Zymeck.

Clarkson then bounced back with a 25-15 win in set two, before the third set was similar to the first – coming down to the wire with both teams within striking distance. This time, Clarkson held a slim lead for most of the set before the Saints tied it up 22-22 late. The Golden Knights then scored three straight points to go up 2-1 in the match.

The fifth set saw Clarkson take advantage, ultimately taking their largest set win of the day with a 25-14 victory to seal the 3-1 match win.

"Like all season long, the quality of our first contact and our blocking determined the outcome of the match," said Shelly Roiger, head coach of the Saints. "Our first set was easily our best set of the season. We were in system the entire set and as a result, we hit .400 against a strong Clarkson defense. Fast forward to the end of set three and we just weren't able to execute well enough and Clarkson's defense made some outstanding saves to keep the point alive. I'm proud of the team for the first and competitiveness they brought. They played fearless for awhile but then we lost it in the fourth set."

The team then made a quick trip down U.S. route 11 to Canton, N.Y. for their second game of the challenge, where they hosted Brockport and dropped a straight sets contest to a strong Brockport team.

The Golden Eagles took the first set by a 25-10 score to take the first set. Committing just two errors, the team earned a .538 hitting percentage with 16 kills on 26 attempts in the first.
While St. Lawrence battled back to keep the second set close, losing 25-19, Brockport completed the sweep with a 25-6 showing in the third set.



"In order for this team to be successful, we have to have contributions from many different people and we just weren't able to do that," Roiger said of her team's effort in game two. "We never really got going in our second match of the day.  We will regroup and look to bring our best quality of play in an important league match tomorrow.  We are so fortunate to get to play again so soon and to be at home." 

The Saints will continue their North Country Challenge with a game against Skidmore at 2 p.m. Saturday.