Araiza Acum-Santos posted her two most productive offensive performances of the season this far, registering 33 kills over two matches as the St. Lawrence University volleyball team split their two contests Saturday to finish the SUNY Brockport Invitational.
They cruised to a four-set win over Hilbert before battling to a tight defeat against host Brockport in their final game of the weekend. That brings St. Lawrence's overall record to 3-4.
"I think our team grew a lot today," said Saints head coach
Shelly Roiger. "We played much more intelligently and the mission to work hard and work smart was achieved. We had opportunities to push the Brockport match to five sets and we needed to execute just one more play to do so. The team finished empty and that's all I can ask for." Â
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Game 1: St. Lawrence 3, Hilbert 1 (25-18, 24-26, 25-16, 25-17)
With the score at 2-2 in the opening set, the Saints rattled off seven straight points that included a
Bridget Gammons ace and a
Vanessa Latam kill to take an early 9-2 lead, one they would not relinquish for the remainder of the set. The Hawks did put a 7-0 run of their own together, bringing the score to 11-10, but St. Lawrence outscored Hilbert 16-8 for the remainder of the set to take the see-saw opener.
Hilbert held a slim lead for the first part of the second set, before St. Lawrence clawed back and tied it several times in the middle of the frame, with Acum-Santos and Gammons adding kills, and the set featured 12 ties and four lead changes before Hilbert edged ahead late and won it 26-24.
St. Lawrence took control from the opening point and never let go. Gammons opened the set with back-to-back kills, and the Saints built their lead with a mix of Acum-Santos putaways and Hilbert attack errors. A late run that saw four straight points on
Cassady Smith's serve, including two aces from the team and one from Schiller, pushed the margin to double digits, and SLU cruised to a 25-16 win to move ahead 2-1.
The fourth set was similar to the third, with St. Lawrence holding onto an early lead wire-to-wire, earning the four-set win to move to 3-3 on the season.
Araiza Acum-Santos and Gammons tied for the team lead in kills with 18 on the day, while Latam contributed 28 assists, and
Cassady Smith had 20 digs. Smith also surpassed her career high for service aces in a game with eight.
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Game 2: SUNY Brockport 3, St. Lawrence 1 (28-26, 8-25, 25-27, 26-28)
Despite the match only lasting four sets, it could have gone either way. First, St. Lawrence took the opener in a hard fought set that took extra points. They found themselves up 3-1 off a kill from Acum-Santos and some Golden Eagle attack errors. The Saints held their lead until crunch time when Brockport took a 14-13 lead, now up for the first time.
St. Lawrence stuck with it though, and found themselves up 24-22 on set point, but the Golden Eagles strung together three straight points to go up 25-24. The Saints had four of the next five points on kills by Latam,
Annika Flittie, and a thunderous block from Gammons and
Naiyah Reece to seal the set win 28-26.
The second was a much different story, where Brockport was able to capitalize on both 8-0 and 7-1 runs to down the Saints in short order in the second stanza.
However, the trend of razor-thin margins returned in set number three. St. Lawrence opened with a Flittie kill and traded points with Brockport through the middle of the set, with Acum-Santos and Latam keeping the Saints within reach. SLU pushed ahead late, up 22-20 on a
Cara Vitarisi service ace, but Brockport answered behind Dickerson-Holly and Butcher to tie it, force extra points, and ultimately go up 2-1.
The fourth was a dog fight that saw four lead changes. The Saints twice pulled within a point in the final stretch, tying it at 24-24 on a Flittie ace and again battling to 26-26 on a Gammons kill, but Kaylee Dickerson-Holly closed it out with back-to-back kills off Ava Baty sets, sealing a 28-26 finish and a 3-1 match win for Brockport.
Acum-Santos was the clear offensive leader for the Scarlet and Brown in the second game of the day, posting a team-high 15 kills. Latam added 32 helpers and five blocks, second-highest block total of her career.
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Up Next:
The tournaments continue prior to league play for the Saints. They now head to Wenham, Mass. for the Gordon College Invitational, where matches against Wheaton, Gordon and Maine Maritime Academy are on the docket. The festivities begin Friday, September 18.
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