With a well-rounded performance throughout their lineup, Saranac Lake defeated the Blue Bombers by scores of 25-21, 23-25, 25-6 and 25-17. The win improved Saranac Lake’s overall record to 8-5.

“I think we’re settling into our lineup,” Red Storm head coach Susan Waters said. “We’re starting to gel a little better with our partnerships and playing next to each other.”

Despite coming up short, Blue Bombers head coach Sandy Huber said her team played the best defense that she had seen from a Lake Placid squad in the last couple of years.

“They had really good instincts and good reaction times on a lot of plays,” she said. “We struggled a lot with serve receive. Saranac Lake’s servers were tough.”

Lake Placid’s Norah Galvin makes a play on the ball during Monday’s contest against Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

Senior Anica Null helped pave the way for the Red Storm, serving nine points and six aces, along with six kills and 10 digs. Alice LaDue, a junior, led Saranac Lake with 11 points, including six aces. Senior Madi Hathaway broke through with 10 points.

Payton Barry, a senior, also had a solid outing for the Red Storm with eight points, five aces, four kills and three digs. Junior Emily Gay was the team’s top setter with 20 assists while chipping in eight points, six digs, five kills and two aces. The team finished a season-high 27 aces.

“Our serving really came around,” Waters said. “Some of our seniors, Madi, Anica and Payton served well — and Alice LaDue — so we really had some strong serving and some strong hits. I think the girls just played really consistently well.”

Waters said her team’s goal is to have a serving percentage above 90%. The Red Storm achieved that goal on Monday with a 90.8% successful serve rate.

“We (also) broke that with AuSable Valley,” she said. “We got 92%, so we’re right up there where we need to be with those kinds of numbers.”

With a roaring student section, Saranac Lake didn’t get off to the hot start it wanted to in the opening set. Lake Placid jumped out to a 6-2 advantage to start the match. However, the Red Storm rallied to even the game at 12-12, and after solid play from both teams, the score was deadlocked at 21-21.

With Null serving, Saranac Lake scored four straight points to win the first game.

“Our defense — when we were in the middle of the play — we were focused and tuned in and we played really well,” Huber said. “We just were really stiff on serve receive and were swinging at a lot of those hard serves.

After dropping the first game, Lake Placid battled with the Red Storm in the second set. Waters said Lake Placid had some really strong hits and their defense was the best she had ever seen it.

“It was a good match,” she said. “We didn’t walk away with it.”

With the score tied at 12-12, the Blue Bombers’ Jillian Kern, a junior, had a momentum-shifting block, that helped Lake Placid kick off a 9-4 run to push the score 21-16. Despite a late rally by Saranac Lake, that brought the game within one point, the Blue Bombers were able to close out the second game on top.

“The second (set) was the most focused we’ve been,” Huber said. “It’s really hard to tune out the crowd, but I think the girls did a great job considering. They did their best, but it’s really hard to block all that out. To win when we were on the side of their student section was really impressive. But unfortunately in that third (set), we just lost steam.”

The Red Storm took a commanding 13-5 lead to open the third game before LaDue served up 10 straight points for her team, making the score 23-5.

“(LaDue has) always been a good consistent server,” Waters said.

After winning the third set, Saranac Lake carried the momentum into the fourth game. The Red Storm held the lead for the entire set and was never really threatened, despite a strong push by Lake Placid.

Nadia Phillip, a senior, led the Blue Bombers with 17 digs, 16 kills, seven points and one ace. Senior teammate Sydney Garrison had another stand-out performance with 14 digs, five points and five kills.

Junior Norah Galvin recorded a team-high 16 assists to go along with her eight points and one ace. Reagan LaMotte had six digs and two kills and Haileigh LaMare chipped in four digs, three points, two kills and one ace.

With the loss, Lake Placid dropped to 3-12 overall. The two squads were slated to return to action on Tuesday. The Blue Bombers hosted Peru, while Saranac Lake traveled to Northern Adirondack.

Following that contest, Saranac Lake will host the Peru Nighthawks next Tuesday, before finishing the season with a road match against Northeastern Clinton on Thursday, Oct. 26.

Lake Placid will wrap up the season with back-to-back road contests next week starting with Northeastern Clinton on Tuesday (Oct. 24) and Plattsburgh on Thursday (Oct. 26). All matches will start at 6 p.m.

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Individual statistics

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SL — Alice LaDue 11 points, 6 aces, 1 dig; Anica Null 9 points, 6 aces, 6 kills, 10 digs; Payton Barry 8 points, 5 aces, 4 kills, 3 digs; Lexie Donaldson 7 points, 2 aces, 2 kills, 1 assist, 11 digs; Whitney Warner 5 kills, 2 digs; Emily Gay 8 points, 2 aces, 5 kills, 20 assists, 6 digs; Abby Isabella 2 digs; Gracen Foster 6 points, 5 aces, 3 kills, 2 assists, 2 digs, 1 block; Madi Hathaway 10 points, 1 ace, 2 digs.

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LP — Brooke Beaney 1 point, 2 digs; Norah Galvin 8 points, 1 ace, 16 assists; Olivia Skutt 2 points; Sydney Garrison 5 points, 5 kills, 14 digs; Nadia Phillip 7 points, 1 ace, 16 kills, 17 digs; Haileigh LaMare 3 points, 1 ace, 2 kills, 4 digs; Reagan LaMotte 2 kills, 6 digs; Kelsey McKillip 3 points, 1 ace; Jillian Kern 1 kill, 2 digs, 1 block, 1 assist.

Lake Placid’s Norah Galvin makes a play on the ball during Monday’s contest against Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)