Lake Placid’s Ireland Cassidy plays the ball during a road match against Saranac Lake on Oct. 3. Also pictured is Lake Placid’s Emma Wylie. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

SARANAC LAKE — The Lake Placid volleyball team suffered a 3-1 road loss on Thursday, Oct. 3 to Saranac Lake. The Red Storm won by scores of 23-25, 25-10, 25-17 and 25-16.

Despite falling, the Blue Bombers jumped out to an early 15-8 advantage in the opening set. While the Red Storm brought the score within one at 20-19, Lake Placid took the first set.

“I was really proud of how aggressive we played in the first set,” Blue Bomber head coach Sandy Huber said. We played to win in the first set, we were aggressive and tried to aim our hits and hit hard.”

While trailing in the match, Saranac Lake flipped the momentum, by taking control of the second set.

“I think they just got in a rhythm and our serves got better,” Red Storm head coach Susan Waters said. “We had a little bit of communication problems in the first set and we managed to start working together a little bit better.”

Lake Placid jumped out to an early lead in the third when it jumped out to a 5-2 score. However, Saranac Lake caught fire with a 15-3 run and quickly took care of the game.

“In the third set, we got our energy back for a while and played hard but we struggled with the long rallies,” Huber said. “Saranac Lake all around was really strong. They didn’t have any weaknesses for us to take care of.”

Saranac Lake used a strong defensive and serving performance to jump to an 8-1 lead in the fourth set and never looked back.

“They picked up a lot,” Huber said, I think that got us in the second set, between their defense and their aggressive serving we got into a big hole and got a little bit down. It was just too hard to dig ourselves out.”

Waters said she was proud of how her defense played on Thursday. She added that the ball was sort of “pinballing all over the place” and her squad was “scooping them up.”

“We had some amazing defensive saves tonight,” she said. “Rori Chenaille-Schenk had an amazing save in the corner, as did Melody Costigan as did Abby Isabella they just dashed over there and got those corner shots which is not an easy thing to do.”

Sophomore Lexie Donaldson paced the Red Storm defensively with a game-high 21 digs. In total, the team had 59 digs.

Saranac Lake’s Emily Gay, a senior, had a strong outing up front with nine points and seven kills. Meanwhile, Isabella, Sophie Czadzeck, Sophia McBride and Alice LaDue all reached double-digit points.

“(Gay) was quite effective in the middle,” Waters said. “Our serves were really good and Sophie Czadzeck also had some really smoking serves.”

Norah Galvin, a senior, paced Lake Placid with 12 assists, 12 digs, six points, three kills, two aces and a block.

“Norah Galvin has been phenomenal,” Huber said. “She had a quadruple-double on Tuesday night against Saranac (Central). She’s been leading our team in kills, I think two or three matches in a row.”

Ireland Cassidy, Haileigh LaMare and Brooke Meyer all had a solid night defensively for the Bombers. Cassidy recorded eight digs, LaMare had seven and Meyer had six with one block.

Lake Placid’s Fiona Sullivan turned in a standout performance as well with a team-high nine points, along with eight digs, four aces and two assists.

“Fiona Sullivan has been doing a great job at front right with setting Norah when Norah has to play the first ball,” Huber said.

The victory helped improve Saranac Lake’s overall record to 6-2 while the Blue Bombers dropped to 2-6 with the loss.

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Individual Statistics

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LP — Brooke Meyer 6 digs, 6 kills, 4 points, 3 aces, 1 block; Emma Wylie 4 digs; Fiona Sullivan 9 points, 8 digs, 4 aces, 2 assists; Norah Galvin 12 assists, 12 digs, 6 points, 3 kills, 2 aces, 1 block; Ireland Cassidy 8 digs, 4 kills, 3 points, 1 assist; Sophie Spanburgh 1 point; Haileigh LaMare 7 digs, 4 kills, Adiss Livesey-Ferry 4 points, 1 ace; Kelsey McKillip 5 digs, 4 points, 2 kills, 1 ace; Reagan LaMotte 3 digs.

SL — Alice LaDue 13 points, 9 digs, 8 assists, 4 aces, 1 assist; Lexie Donaldson 21 digs, 3 kills, 3 points, 1 ace, 1 assist, Whitney Warner 1 dig, 1 kill; Emily Gay 9 points, 7 kills, 4 aces; Abby Isabella 14 digs, 11 points, 4 aces, 4 kills, 2 assists, Gracen Foster 5 kills, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 dig; Sophia McBride 12 points, 2 aces, 1 assist, 1 dig, 1 kill; Sophie Czadzeck 10 points, 7 assists, 6 aces, 3 digs; Rori Chenaille-Schenk 2 digs, 1 point; Mackenzie Crane 1 kill; Marley Logan 3 digs, 1 kill; Melody Cositgan 4 digs.