Vanessa Latam moved into third all-time in St. Lawrence University volleyball history in assists, recording 20 on the day moving her to 2,456 for her career, as the Saints engaged in a straight-set defeat – 15-25, 19-25, 11-25 – to the No. 8 ranked Ithaca Bombers in their penultimate home conference match.
The Saints now hold a record of 12-9 following the defeat, and 2-3 in conference. They hold the sixth and final playoff spot in the Liberty League. With the victory, Ithaca registered their 20
th win of 2026, moving to 20-3 and 7-0 in the Liberty League.
"Ithaca is an excellent team and their offensive balance definitely gave us issues," said Saints head coach
Shelly Roiger. "I thought our serving was very solid most of the evening and I thought we did a fairly good job of getting them out of system often. Their athleticism allowed them to make things happen and I think their setters are some of the best that we'll see all season long."
St. Lawrence opened set one with a 2-0 lead on a kill from
Annika Flittie and a service ace. Ithaca answered with a 7-0 run, scoring on kills from Naomi Clauhs and Addison Leadbetter and a pair of blocks to go up 13-6, and the Bombers held a comfortable margin the rest of the way.
The Saints put up their strongest push in the second set. After Ithaca built a 14-9 advantage with a five-point run, St. Lawrence trimmed the deficit to 16-15 on a five-point run of its own, powered by kills from Flittie. That forced a Bomber timeout. The Bombers responded from there and took the set.
The Bombers controlled the third set from the start, building a 10-5 lead and then going up 19-8 with a stretch of kills and blocks. St. Lawrence closed the gap, with
McKayla Pollard and Acum-
Araiza Acum-Santos contributing with kills from the pins, but Ithaca finished the match on a kill from Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu.
Gammons led St. Lawrence with seven kills and three block assists while hitting .294. Acum-Santos had six kills, and Flittie and Pollard each added four.
Vanessa Latam finished with 20 assists and seven digs, Smith led the defense with 12 digs, and
Cara Vitarisi had two aces.
The Saints wrap up their home conference schedule with a Saturday afternoon tilt against William Smith at 2 p.m.
