Leaving the weekend with an unfortunate loss to Renesslaer and an overall record of 17 wins and 8 losses, St. Lawrence Women’s Basketball looked to Tuesday’s Liberty League first round match up against Rochester Institute of Technology. After celebrating the team’s two seniors, Annabella Pugliese and Caroline Rodi, the Saints used this motivation and encouragement to take down the Tigers of RIT. The Tigers sat 3 places behind the Saints with a conference record of 9 wins and 9 losses.

Favored with a home court advantage and a lively crowd, the Saints brought ferocity from the opening whistle to the end of the game. The starting line-up of Ava McCann ’22, Annabella Pugliese ’20, Katie Frederick ’21, Dylan Watkiss ’22 and Erin Kumler ’22, helped put up 18 points in the first quarter and 17 in the second. McCann, a sophomore guard from Binghamton New York, continued her dominance from the arc going 7/10 from the 3-point line. She finished the game with 21 points, boosting her season total to 349. 

Freshman Olivia Barringer ’23 has been a consistent player for the Saints all season long, showing this in Tuesday’s game, scoring 15 points.

On the defensive end, Katie Frederick ‘21 has been a key player in many of the teams wins. With 319 rebounds so far this year, Frederick displayed strength in the paint against the Tigers ending the game with 12 rebounds and 9 points.

Outscored by St. Lawrence 32 to 48 in the second half, a few RIT players had notable games as well. Senior captain Brooke Stanley put up 22 points and junior Sabrina Wolfe finished the Liberty League match up with 9 rebounds and 13 points.

With the final score of the first round of the tournament being 83 to 56 in favor of St. Lawrence, the Saints will face Vassar College on February 29 in Ithaca, New York. Student Assistant Marlee Gunn ’21 is hopeful for the next game stating post-win, “Going into the final four, we are confident with our matchup against Vassar. We played them even during the regular season and it is going to be a whole team effort to get the win on Saturday.” Gunn and the rest of the team encourage the St. Lawrence community to make the trip to Ithaca to show support for the squad and catch a game that is expected to be neck and neck.