McKayla Pollard had seven kills in each match for a team high, as St. Lawrence University volleyball team didn't drop a set in two matches Saturday afternoon, cruising to back-to-back 3-0 wins over RIT and SUNY Potsdam as they sent off their seniors on Laurentian Weekend.
The win over the Tigers was St. Lawrence's first conference victory of the season, and they've now won five of their last six matches. They hold a 1-1 record in conference and 8-7 overall. It's their first time above .500 since September 6, as they hit their stride right before entering the meat of their conference schedule.
"What a great day for Saints Volleyball!" said Saints head coach
Shelly Roiger. "I'm so proud of our team for their dominant win over RIT. We played with great focus and purpose and our serving was the best it's been all season."Â
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"After recognizing our seniors, I'm proud of the focus the team continued to bring to the court in our match against Potsdam. It was nice to get everyone some rotations with contributions coming from players up and down the roster. It was nice to celebrate our seniors but I'm hopeful there will be several bigger celebrations to come this season for the entire team."Â
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Match 1: St. Lawrence 3, RIT 0 (25-18, 25-11, 25-20)
The Saints led by as many as seven points in the opening set after the teams traded the lead early and tied six times. St. Lawrence closed the set on a six-point run to take it 25-18.
The second set was never in doubt. St. Lawrence ran off seven straight points to build a 19-6 lead, pushed the margin to 14 points and held RIT to 11 points in the set. The Saints hit .333 in the set with 10 kills and one error.
St. Lawrence opened the third set with a 10-0 run, all of it with Smith at the service line. Smith started the stretch with a block from Pollard and Gammons that forced an RIT attack error, and Pollard followed with a kill off a Gammons set to make it 3-0. Smith then served three aces in four points to stretch the lead to 9-0. St. Lawrence led by as many as 10 points in the set. RIT closed with a five-point run late, but the Saints finished it off 25-20.
McKayla Pollard and
Naiyah Reece each had seven kills, with Reece adding 11 digs to lead the team in the back row.
Vanessa Latam ran the offense with 17 assists and added five kills with just one error for a .400 hitting percentage. Gammons also had five kills, and
Audrey Bibbins added two kills and a solo block.
St. Lawrence served its way to the win, finishing with 18 aces to RIT's four.
Cassady Smith led the way with nine aces, which tied her for second in a single game in Saints program history, while
Cara Vitarisi added five and
Sofie Giannelli posted three.
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Match 2: St. Lawrence 3, SUNY Potsdam 0 (25-13, 25-11, 25-15)
The Saints began the second match with a ceremony to send off their seniors, with
Araiza Acum-Santos,
Audrey Bibbins,
Vanessa Latam, and
Kalina Natcheva being honored pre-game for their contributions to St. Lawrence athletics.
St. Lawrence rode the good energy into an early opening set lead, ultimately never trailing. St. Lawrence never trailed in the opening set. The Saints built a 9-2 lead behind three kills from Gammons and a Vitarisi service run that included an ace. Potsdam answered with five straight points to cut the deficit to 10-8, but St. Lawrence took control for good after the Tigers drew within 15-11. Reece served seven consecutive points, with two kills from Pollard pushing the lead to 12. The Saints closed it out 25-13.
Latam opened the second set by serving the first four points, including two aces, and St. Lawrence led from start to finish.
Rowan Mottau entered midway through the set and contributed to a three-point run that made it 13-3. The Saints stretched the margin to 14 points at 20-6 Potsdam made a late four-point run, but St. Lawrence scored five of the final six points to win.
Potsdam scored the first point of the third set, but the Saints answered with six straight.
Cassady Smith later served up back-to-back aces to make it 11-3, and Vitarisi added two aces of her own to extend the lead to 17-5. St. Lawrence led by as many as 12 in the final set as they ended the match in straight sets.
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Up Next:
The Saints play against SUNY Canton for the second time this season on Tuesday, October 6 Â before taking the road to Bard and Vassar for conference matches on Friday and Saturday.
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