St. Lawrence University Athletics

Vivian Zymeck had seven kills and the St. Lawrence Saints led the way in total attacks with 136, but it ultimately wasn't enough to down the Hartwick Hawks in the opening game of the Red Dragon Classic in Cortland, N.Y.
 
They fell by a final score of 3-1 (16-25, 10-25, 25-22, 13-25) against Hartwick, showing resilience via taking their first set win of the tournament season, while down 0-2 against the Hawks. St. Lawrence faced in the 2022 Red Dragon Classic and fell by the same 3-1 score.
 
The Saints ceded the opening points of the first set to make it 8-4 Hartwick, but then rallied to put themselves into the lead. The rally included a 7-0 run to take a 11-8 lead, in a stint led by two kills from Kori Meissner, and two aces from Rachel Boudreau.
 
However, the Hawks responded with eight straight points of their own shortly thereafter to take a 20-12 lead, ultimately leading them to the first set victory.
 
Hartwick got out to an early lead versus St. Lawrence in the second set, and this time they would not relinquish it. They went out to a 5-0 lead through kills by Shaelyn Thornton and Staecia Silofau, a Vanessa Seymour service ace, and an attack error by the Saints.
 
This forced an early set timeout for the Scarlet and Brown, but Hartwick continued to outpace the Saints offensively en route to a 25-10 win in set two.
 
With St. Lawrence in a 0-2 hole, they found their way back into the game in the third set by winning a nail biter 25-22. The Saints and Hawks kept pace with each other for most of the set, with St. Lawrence preserving leads by razor thin margins – until the Hawks bucked that trend.
 
With the score tied at 19-19, Hartwick took a lead for the first time since the first point of the set on a kill by Niah Reeves. But the Saints were then the beneficiaries of four straight errors from the Hawks; three bad sets and an attack error, which put the score at 23-20. It was ultimately a service ace from Rachel Boudreau that secured the set win for St. Lawrence, their first of 2023.

"We came out very nervous and unaggressive," said head coach Shelly Roiger. "We continue to be young on the court and it showed but I'm confident that this will improve quickly as the season progresses. We really struggled with our first contact and when you don't win the battle of serving and serve receive, it's hard to be successful. We had a lot of unforced errors and that's a controllable for us so that was a point of discussion after the match...each person doing their job and coming out to compete with purpose, not just playing the game."

However, Hartwick took the final set by a score of 25-13 to seal the 3-1 victory. The Saints held the advantage in kills in the final set, but it was unforced mistakes that ultimately proved to be their undoing – they made nine attack errors to Hartwick's one.

"We will face an excellent Rowan team tomorrow that swept the NJAC conference season last year, so that will be a good test for us as they compare to the top of the Liberty League. I'm looking forward to seeing us play with some purpose and our veterans need to lead the way. We finish the day with Fredonia who was a five set win for us last season so that will be another battle." 
 
St. Lawrence will resume play in the Red Dragon Classic Saturday afternoon when they wrap up the tournament with a twin bill. They have games scheduled in Cortland, N.Y. against Rowan and Fredonia at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. respectively.