Araiza Acum-Santos had 25 kills spread across two games, and
Adeline Riesenberger added 21 of her own, as the St. Lawrence University volleyball team finished the Plattsburgh State Invitational with two more victories on Saturday, downing Plattsburgh in a five set thriller 3-2 (25-23, 25-21, 23-25, 18-25, 15-9), and sweeping SUNY Delhi 3-0 (25-15, 25-17, 25-16).
The wins propel the Saints to a 3-0 record ahead of their home-opening non-conference contests next weekend.
"Our objective this weekend was to make sure we were a better team on Saturday night than we were on Friday morning and there's no doubt in my mind that we accomplished that," said Saints head coach
Shelly Roiger. "We definitely have a list of things to work on next week but I like how we launched our season and I'm very happy for this group of young women to start their 2025 season off with a 3-0 start. They are very selfless in every way and I've been around long enough to recognize that winning is much more fun than losing."
Game 1: St. Lawrence 3, Plattsburgh 2 (25-23, 25-21, 23-25, 18-25, 15-9)
The opening set was tightly contested, with neither team gaining a massive edge over the other. It consisted of seven ties and four lead changes, with both teams trading points early on. The Saints capitalized on late attack errors by Plattsburgh and sealed the set victory with a kill from
Araiza Acum-Santos.
After going up early, St. Lawrence found themselves playing from behind in the second. The Cardinals had a 5-0 run to go up 9-7, forcing the Saints to dig in for a response. They got it, securing nine of the next 11 points to go up 16-11. They eventually won the set 25-21.
Plattsburgh showed resilience, however, and extended the match in the fourth. The Cardinals took an early lead and held off a late surge from St. Lawrence. Plattsburgh's four blocks made the difference. St. Lawrence out-killed the Cardinals in the fourth set 14-14, but fell 25-18 to force a fifth and deciding set in the match.
In the fifth, the Scarlet and Brown took early control and never looked back to seal the victory. St. Lawrence capitalized on errors and closed out the match with key kills from
Berit Brecke and Riesenberger, securing the 3–2 victory.
Game 2: St. Lawrence 3, SUNY Delhi 0 (25-15, 25-17, 25-16)
In their third match in under 24 hours, the Saints ended it early with a straight set win.
The Saints never trailed in the first set, but really pulled away from Delhi with a 6-0 run to make the score 13-6 early on, in a run that featured three Acum-Santos kills. They took the wire-to-wire win by 10 points in the opening set.
The second set was a different story, with the teams remaining close with multiple lead changes in the set. The Saints ended the set by taking eight of the last nine points to win 25-17. Riesenberger, Acum-Santos and Brecke came up with the clutch kills in the set win to give the Scarlet and Brown a commanding 2-0 set advantage.
St. Lawrence used another run to take control of the third set, but this was a 9-1 run at the beginning of the third and led to them pulling away for the win.
Riesenberger led the offensive charge with nine kills and a .444 hitting percentage, while
Audrey Bibbins added six kills on just eight attempts for a .625 mark. The Saints outpaced Delhi in nearly every statistical category, including kills (40–21), digs (39–26), and service aces (11–3).
Up Next:
The Saints head home to welcome Middlebury, St. John Fisher and Keuka to Canton, N.Y. next weekend for their next swing through non-conference play, with the North Country Classic beginning Friday, September 5.
