Bridget Gammons posted a new season high with 14 kills, and Cassady Smith had a career-high for digs with 35, as the St. Lawrence University volleyball team scored a set victory but fell 3-1 (19-25, 19-25, 25-21, 17-25) to Clarkson in the 2025 edition of the Route 11 Rivalry on Tuesday evening in Potsdam, N.Y.

The Saints went down early in the game 0-2, but rallied with a set win and held a lead late into the fourth set against their decorated rivals, before the Golden Knights ended the match with a late rally.
With the defeat, St. Lawrence falls to 1-2 in conference play, and 10-6 overall on the 2025 campaign.

"I am very proud of our team's effort tonight," said Saints head coach Shelly Roiger. "That's the toughest we have played Clarkson in several years, and while the disappointment of that loss is real right now, I hope the team will recognize that they have a lot to be proud of. We got off to great starts in all four sets and sustained it until the mid-teens but we struggled to close out sets. We just made a few too many unforced errors when we needed the execution to be pristine. That being said, that was easily our best match of the season and we will look to bounce back in a key match up on Friday night against Skidmore."

The first set saw St. Lawrence take an early 8-5 lead off kills from Gammons and Adeline Riesenberger. The Golden Knights slowly inched back into the set, eventually playing to a tie at 16-15 and recorded nine of the next 11 points to win the opening set.

The Saints had an early advantage in the second again when they took an early 2-0 lead, and held a 13-9 lead in the mid portion of the set after back-to-back Berit Brecke kills. Clarkson would put together two rallies later in the set to flip the script on the Saints again and end the set in the same score as the first, 25-19.

That gave the home Golden Knights a commanding lead in the match, looking for the sweep in the third set. But St. Lawrence would have a response, and made it 2-1. The Scarlet and Brown strung together five straight points for the first time in the match early in the third, going up 8-3 on the strength of kills by Gammons and Vanessa Latam, and three Clarkson attack errors. They held the lead for the majority of the set and won it by four.

In the fourth, the Saints appeared to have Clarkson on the ropes up 15-12, but the Golden Knights had 13 of the last 15 points in the set to win it by eight.

Smith's 35 digs also register the first year in the Saints' history books: Her performance places her seventh all-time in digs in a match in the Saints' record books.

St. Lawrence doesn't have to wait long to return to action – they play host to Skidmore on Friday, October 10, as they resume league play against the Thoroughbreds at Burkman Gymnasium in Canton, N.Y.