The St. Lawrence University volleyball team won the opening set but fell to Clarkson 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-18) in their first Liberty League match of the season in front of a large Laurentian contingent on Friday night at Burkman Gymnasium.
"This was easily our best match of the season," said Saints head coach
Shelly Roiger. "We faced so much adversity during this match and the team never let up, never made excuses, never stopped pursuing excellence. I am so proud of their effort, their determination, and their high level of execution at times. If we can cut our first contact errors in half and play with that much grit, the rest of the season is going to be a blast."
The Saints' record overall falls to 6-7 with the loss, and now they sit at 0-1 entering their conference match with RIT on Saturday afternoon. Roiger stressed the importance of that match against the Tigers, set for 12 p.m.
"We'll need to recover quickly for a short turnaround in another Liberty League battle tomorrow," she continued. "We're grateful to be at home again for our triad where we'll battle a dangerous RIT team and then recognize our four seniors just before the Potsdam match. We were so happy to see everyone who came out to support us tonight for Saints Nation and the Route 11 Rivalry game. Hopefully we can give people more to cheer about tomorrow."
After the golden knights opened with a lead, the Saints battled back from deficits as many as six in the first set. They rattled off a six-point run to tie it at 17-17 and went back and forth from there. St. Lawrence moved ahead 23-20, and after Clarkson drew within a point at 24-23, Annika Flittie put down a kill off a Vanessa Latam set to close it out 25-23.Â
Clarkson took control from the second set on. The Golden Knights opened a lead as large as nine points in the second set and won 25-19, then built an eight-point advantage in the third before closing it out 25-17. St. Lawrence stayed with them in the fourth, trading points through the middle of the set, but Clarkson pulled away for a 25-18 win.
Naiyah Reece led the Saints with 12 kills and 12 digs, adding two aces for a team-high 14 points. Cassady Smith posted a match-high 20 digs and had three aces. Latam finished with 23 assists, 12 digs, five kills and four blocks. McKayla Pollard added five kills, while Bridget Gammons and Flittie each had four. Gammons also had three block assists.
