Potsdam, NY – An odd bounce off a direct kick jump-started the RIT offense as the Clarkson University Women’s Soccer team dropped a 2-0 decision Sunday afternoon at Clarkson Field.

The Golden Knights fell to 2-4 with their third straight loss while the Tigers posted their first win of the season to move to 1-3-3. Clarkson will begin conference play this weekend when it hosts Union and Skidmore.

The Tigers got on the scoreboard midway through the first half when the team was awarded a direct kick from about 10 yards outside the penalty area. Chelsea Shoemaker chipped the kick over the top of the wall and it was deflected by a Clarkson defender, but before touching the ground the ball found the head of Ashley Pezze, who directed the shot backwards over Clarkson goalie Stephanie Collins’ (Colton, NY) hands at 17:14.

Four minutes later, the Tigers scored again when they reversed a Clarkson attack and Kim Hunt sent an easy pass into the middle, finding Lauren Tracy with a virtual one-on-one at the top of the box. A quick move to her left and a hard groundball rolled past Collins just inside the post for a 2-0 RIT lead at 21:14.

Despite a more pronounced edge in the second half, RIT was unable to score any more goals than the two in the first half thanks to well-placed Clarkson defenders at key moments in the contest.

RIT led the game in both shots (17-13) and corner kicks (7-5). Ashley Valenti made six saves for RIT before being relieved by Alyssa Henkel, who stopped one shot in the final 17 minutes. Collins made one save in the first half for Clarkson, and Alex Sullivan (Copenhagen, NY) made two stops in the second half for the Knights.