St. Lawrence University Athletics

The St. Lawrence Saints volleyball team went the distance in both of their Saturday matches in Cortland N.Y. at the Red Dragon Classic, splitting their games. They began with a 3-2 (25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 13-25, 15-8) win against Rowan, before ending their day with a 3-2 (13-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-22, 11-15) loss against Fredonia.
 
"What a couple of battles today," said Shelly Roger, St. Lawrence's volleyball head coach. "Our Rowan win was one of the grittiest wins we've had in my 14 seasons here at SLU. They are a team that swept their conference last season, appeared in the NCAA tourney, were ranked No. 1 in the NJAC preseason poll, and we walked out with the victory."
 
The win over Rowan is St. Lawrence's first of the 2022-23 season, but it didn't come easily. The Saints started hot in the early afternoon contest and took a 2-0 lead through the match's opening two sets. While they were both hotly contested, the Saints took a 25-23 win in the first set, following it up with a similarly tight win in the second set, 25-22.
 
However, Rowan got back into the match by taking wins in the last two sets, setting up a fifth and deciding set. Aside from the first point of the set, St. Lawrence led for the entirety of the fifth set, with Vivian Zymeck ending it with a kill on match point and a 15-8 set win.
 
Zymeck led the way for the second straight game, this time putting up a season-high 17 kills. Adeline Riesenberger had 13 of her own in the win for St. Lawrence, which brought their season record to 1-1.
 
The Saints then returned to the court hours later for their second game of the day against Fredonia, and the game played out in the opposite fashion in a 3-2 Saints loss.
 
After a 25-13 opening set defeat to Fredonia, the Blue Devils went up 2-0. St. Lawrence then battled back to tie the game 2-2 with back-to-back set wins before ultimately dropping the game's final set. The Saints were up 9-6 in the final set, but gave up nine of the next 11 points to cede the game to the Blue Devils.
 
"Our energy was poor and we didn't turn the page like we needed to," Roiger said of the Saints' start against Fredonia. "I'm so proud of the effort we showed later, but we didn't finish set five like we needed to. We grew a ton this weekend, and I'm grateful for the teams' competitive approach to the matches today."
 
Zymeck's 15 kills were a team-high in game two of the day, while freshman Araiza Acum-Santos had her season high with 13 kills.
 
After wrapping up the Red Dragon Classic, the scarlet and brown now return home to continue their early-season tournament slate host the North Country Classic, beginning Friday, Sept. 8. They'll welcome Oswego State to Ronald T. Burkman Gymnasium Friday, before facing Hamilton College on Saturday, Sept. 9.