Despite six kills each for Kate Gardner and Sofia Velasquez, the St. Lawrence volleyball team fell in three sets to the Union Garnet Chargers, Saturday afternoon in Schenectady, N.Y. 

The loss drops the Saints' overall record to 3-17, as they finish their conference season with a 1-7 overall record.

"We found ourselves right there in each set until the 15-point mark," said Shelly Roiger, the Saints' head coach. "Our issue was execution late in sets. Our block this weekend was the best it has been all season, so I'm hoping that will continue. With the Liberty League portion of the season being over for us, we will focus now on being hungry to keep improving and going to battle as we close out our season with five non-conference matches."

The Saints started strong in the first set, scoring the first four points with kills from Kori Meissner, Gardner and two service aces from Maggie Layman. Despite this, the Garnet Chargers trimmed that lead quickly and took their first advantage, 7-6, a few points later. They then used this momentum to build a 4-0 run, which gave the home team an 11-7 lead. Trailing 13-9, St. Lawrence went on a 4-0 run of their own to tie the at 13. Latam had two service aces and Sofia Velasquez got a kill in this span. 

The Scarlet and Brown then proceeded to take the lead, 17-16, shortly after. However, four of the next five points went the way of the Garnet Chargers. The Saints were never able to recover from this, and dropped the last three points and the first set 25-20. 

The early part of the second set was closely contested much like the first. Although St. Lawrence never led, they kept the Garnet Chargers in check by keeping the game within three points. However, with Union holding a 13-12 lead, they scored the next ten points to blow the set open, winning it 25-13 a few points later. 

In the third set, the Saints scored the first four points behind an ace from Layman and a kill from Velasquez. They held on to this lead for the early part of the set, but eventually, Union tied it at 11, then took their first lead 13-12. After the two teams exchanged points for a while, Union opened up a 19-15 lead with a 4-0 run. The Saints paced the Garnet Chargers for a while, but with the game at 22-18, the Garnet Chargers used three straight points to end the match. 

Gardner and Velasquez both contributed with five digs each and Meissner led the Saints in that category with nine. Layman was second on the team with seven digs and both Meissner and Layman had three service aces. 

The Saints will be back in action next weekend at the Keuka Triad, where they will play the SUNY Poly Wildcats at 1 p.m. and then the host Keuka Wolves at 3 p.m. Earlier in the season, St. Lawrence lost to the Wolves in three sets and beat the Wildcats in five.