Troy, NY – Although the Clarkson University Women's Lacrosse team more than held its own in the second half against Rensselaer, the Golden Knights were held scoreless in the first 30 minutes and could not recover from their early struggles in a 14-9 defeat against the Engineers on Saturday afternoon.

The Golden Knights moved to 3-2 overall and 0-1 in the Liberty League, and the team will head to Florida for a pair of non-league games early next week. Rensselaer improved to 3-1-1 and 1-0 in conference games.

The Engineers scored right off the opening draw, just 12 seconds in, and scored two more times in the first 122 seconds of the game to take a 3-0 lead. Though RPI would go scoreless for nearly 20 minutes after that quick outburst, Clarkson was unable to take advantage with any offense of its own. The Knights were successful on a handful of clears early on, but could not fight through the Engineers' defense for a shot until nearly nine minutes had ticked off the clock. With goals from Abbey Salvon at 2:21 and 0:53, RPI took a 6-0 lead into the locker room at the break.

The Golden Knights came out in the second half with rediscovered vigor as Emma Andrews and Abby Collins scored just 32 seconds apart in the first two minutes of the second half. The two teams exchanged goals for the next 10 minutes, however, as Clarkson could not cut the lead to fewer than four goals. In a stretch of approximately 10 minutes, RPI scored four goals to Clarkson's one, pushing out to a seven-goal advantage with 6:50 to go. Junior Jaid Baytos then tallied three times in the final five minutes, but it was not enough for the Knights to get within striking distance of the Engineers.

RPI finished the game with a 33-27 edge in shots and a 15-10 lead in draws, though Clarkson held the advantage on groundballs (18-14). Baytos and Abby Collins each scored three points while both Emma Andrews and Taylor Collins scored twice. Taylor Collins also contributed three groundballs and a pair of draws. Stephanie Scaia led the team with four draw controls and both Taylor Kwiek and Abby Gruneisen tied for the team lead with three groundballs. For the Engineers, Abbey Salvon had seven points on six goals and an assist and Maddy Aslansan scored five points with four goals and an assist while also contributing five draw controls. Aleena Milinski made 11 saves for RPI.