Lake Placid’s Nadia Phillip makes a play on the ball during a home match against Saranac Lake on Sept. 18. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — After splitting matches last season, the rivalry between the Saranac Lake and Lake Placid volleyball teams has continued to grow with back-and-forth contests.

This time around it was the Red Storm who claimed the first match between the two schools this year, topping the Blue Bombers 3-2 on Monday, Sept. 18 in Lake Placid. Saranac Lake won by scores of 21-25, 25-22, 25-19, 18-25, 16-14.

“I think the rivalry brings out the best in both teams,” Lake Placid head coach Sandy Huber said. “A lot of times (on Sept. 18) we played as hard as we could, we just didn’t quite get it done.”

While Red Storm head coach Susan Waters said the win was a team effort, she noted that freshman libero Lexie Donaldson had a solid outing.

“She played solid defense while contributing the most points for the team,” Waters said. “She also served well and hit reliably.”

Lake Placid’s Sydney Garrison makes a play during a home match against Saranac Lake on Sept. 18. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

Donaldson finished the contest with 16 digs, 12 points, four aces, four kills and one assist. Seniors Anica Null and Payton Barry had solid all-around performances for the Red Storm. Null finished the contest with eight kills, eight assists, eight digs, six points and four aces. Barry had 10 points, seven digs, five aces, four kills and one assist.

Junior Norah Galvin led Lake Placid with 12 points, 15 assists, eight digs, two kills and one ace. Senior Nadia Phillip was the Blue Bombers driving force in front of the net, recording a team-high 10 kills.

“She could’ve easily had another 10 if Saranac Lake’s defense wasn’t all over the place,” Huber said. “They were reading her really well and just did a great job digging.”

Phillip also had 12 digs, nine service points and one ace.

“Even though she’s a power hitter and people notice her hitting,” Huber said, “her defense is just as good and important for us to get passes to Norah.”

The Blue Bombers got off to a hot start on Sept. 18, jumping out to a 21-16 advantage in the first set. Despite a strong push by Saranac Lake, which brought the score within two points, the Blue Bombers pulled out the opening set victory.

After a back-and-forth second set, the Red Storm evened the match with a second-set victory. In the third set, Saranac Lake erased an early 4-1 deficit with 19-10 run before closing out the set.

After allowing Saranac Lake to win back-to-back sets, Huber said she had to motivate her team by yelling at them — something she doesn’t do often.

“I usually don’t get mad and I try to keep it positive, but we stopped playing with heart for a while and it just looked like we had given up,” she said. “I had to give them a little kick and they responded well to it. They picked it up and they started supporting each other more and more and got back to working hard and having fun.”

The Blue Bombers responded well, holding a slight advantage over the Red Storm to force a fifth set. Huber said she was really proud of Norah’s decision-making during the late stages.

“She knew that she had to send the second ball over or set it to the back row to Nadia,” she said. “She did really well in reading what was going on with both teams and being able to adjust to that.”

In the final set, the two squads traded points and eventually met at 14-14, before Saranac Lake closed the match with two straight points.

“I think we fought hard most of the night,” Huber said. “I think we had a couple of times where we slowed down a little bit and we were able to pick it back up and think positive again. We worked really hard and Saranac Lake did, too.”

Peru 3, Lake Placid 0

The Lake Placid volleyball team suffered a 3-0 setback to the host Peru Nighthawks on Tuesday, Sept. 19, falling by scores of 25-12, 25-18 and 25-16.

Galvin paced the Blue Bombers with nine assists, four digs, four points, two aces and two kills. Phillip had eight kills, five digs, two points and one ace.

Lake Placid’s Reagan Lamotte led the team with six digs. Lamotte also contributed with two points and one kill.

The Blue Bombers dropped to 1-5 overall. Lake Placid was scheduled to host Northeastern Clinton on Sept. 21. The squad will travel to Beekmantown on Tuesday, Sept. 26 for its next match.