Rochester, NY - After claiming a championship last weekend, the Clarkson University Volleyball team started off Friday eyeing another title. Although the Golden Knights were able to pull out a hard-fought five-set victory against Brockport State, the team was unable to continue against a rested Nazareth squad, losing in three straight in the nightcap at the RIT Invitational.
The Golden Knights moved to 8-2 on the season and will face tournament host RIT at 10:00 am on Saturday. Clarkson defeated Brockport State (25-18, 22-25, 25-19, 15-25, 15-7) to start the day before falling to Nazareth in three straight (25-20, 25-16, 25-23).
"Today we didn't play our best, so it's all the more rewarding to pull out a tough five-set win against Brockport," head coach Johan Dulfer said. "I thought Brockport played a very low error match and we struggled with their composure. We really had to earn our points, and to win in five was a good team accomplishment. The Nazareth match was a better matchup for us, ironically, and I thought we stepped up our play for that match. The difference in the match was that we started to play like we had something to lose, forgetting our identity a little bit. Clarkson volleyball is at its best when we are hungry and we play for the upset. When we stopped worrying about losing, we came back from 10 points down and tied the score up at 23-23 in the third. With a little more luck we would've pushed the match into extra sets and I would've liked to have seen the result. The most important thing is that we learned how to approach those type of big matches and we'll take that with us tomorrow in the silver bracket."
Against Brockport, sophomore Sara Artus (St. Regis Falls, NY) led the team with 14 kills overall, but it was freshman Courtney Haines (Crestview, FL) who had the most impressive numbers. Haines had 10 kills and just one error in 16 swings for a hitting percentage well over .500. Sophomore Megan Mahon (Irvine, CA) also added in 7 kills and 3 aces.
Jenna Stock (Johnstown, NY) led Clarkson with 41 assists and the Knights' defense once again shined with three different players recording double-figures in digs, led by Jessica Agnew (Queensbury, NY) with 16. Alison Schroeder (Webster, NY) added in 14 digs and Amanda Rankin (Horseheads, NY) had 10 digs.
Versus Nazareth, Haines and Mahon had 7 and 6 kills, respectively, in the shorter match, but Clarkson's defense was up to the task again. Schroeder had a team-high 31 digs while Rankin came through with 19 digs to go along with a pair of aces. Schroeder's solid day pushed her closer to the all-time digs mark as she enters Saturday just 29 short of tying Clarkson's career record.
