St. Lawrence dropped a four-set match to Grove City on Friday, falling 21-25, 11-25, 25-21, 11-25 in their opening game at the SUNY Brockport tournament.
With the result, the Saints fall to 2-3 on the season, while Grove City improves to 6-1.
"We got off to a great start in our match tonight but we weren't able to sustain our lead in set one," said Saints head coach
Shelly Roiger. "We let that frustration carry over to set two. Set three was a good bounce back set for us, but we weren't able to maintain that momentum. Grove City did a great job of minimizing errors and forced us to respond and we did not do so. We will be better tomorrow as we focus on new opponents and a new mindset."
St. Lawrence came out hot in the opening set, building leads of 10-4 and 14-9 behind strong starts from its outside hitters. Grove City chipped away to tie the set at 18, and the two sides traded points before the Wolverines used a late run to close it out, 25-21.
Grove City took the opener behind a balanced attack, pulling away late for a 25-21 win. The Wolverines carried that momentum into the second set, building an early lead and cruising to a 25-11 finish while holding St. Lawrence to a season-low hitting mark in the frame.
St. Lawrence answered in the third set, riding a strong offensive stretch to even the match at 25-21 and force a fourth. But Grove City closed the door with another lopsided 25-11 set to seal the match.
Bridget Gammons led St. Lawrence with 14 kills, and
Vanessa Latam finished with 21 assists to go with nine kills of her own. Sarah Hart paced Grove City with 16 kills, while Brooke Manfull tallied 21 assists.
The Saints get back in action quickly on Saturday. They have a 12 p.m. start against Hilbert on Saturday, following by another game against SUNY Brockport, their second of the year, immediately after at 3 p.m.
