The St. Lawrence University volleyball team dropped their first game in six contests against nationally acclaimed William Smith, falling in straight sets 3-0 (11-25, 11-25, 16-25) on Saturday afternoon in Geneva, N.Y.

The loss is the first of the conference season for the Saints, after they recorded a win over RIT on Friday. Their Liberty League mark sits at 1-1, and overall record is 10-5.

"William Smith is a very good team who is getting votes for national rankings and deservedly so," said Saints head coach Shelly Roiger. "They are extremely athletic and their pace caused problems for us defensively. Each set, we were competing at the 10-point mark then got destroyed in the teens. We have about 10 days until our next game so next week will be a great opportunity to kake some strikes, both offensively and defensively, and we'll focus on developing a much better first contact as well."

William Smith began the opening set of the match by routinely stringing together points. Holding an 11-7 lead, the Herons rattled off 12 of the next 14 points after that, giving them a commanding set lead. Kills from Araiza Acum-Santos and Adeline Riesenberger made it 23-11, but William Smith had the last two points of the opening set to end it.

The second set saw St. Lawrence take an early 2-1 lead off back-to-back attack errors from Malya Sayre. That lead then stretched to 4-3 on a Sofia Velasquez kill before the Herons strung some points together to take a lead. They never looked back from there, and tacked on a 7-0 run in a stretch that saw them record 10 of 11 points. Ultimately, the second set ended by the same score as the first.

In the third set, St. Lawrence took an early 2-0 lead off back to back Herons unforced errors. Later in the set, with the Herons in the lead, St. Lawrence mustered two straight points off an Acum-Santos kill and an ace by Lily Snide. Then, down 20-12, they had three straight points to make it a five-point game, but the Herons recorded five of the next six points to end the match in straight sets.

Vanessa Latam had the Saints' lead in both assists with 16, and kept the Saints in it on the defensive side of the volleyball with a team-high nine digs. Acum-Santos has nine kills to lead the Scarlet and Brown offensively.

St. Lawrence now preps for regional foe Clarkson, as they travel down U.S. Route 11 to Potsdam, N.Y. to play the Golden Knights on Tuesday, October 7.