Potsdam, NY - With 41 kills over two matches, Sara Artus (St. Regis Falls, NY) put together another strong first day to help lead the Clarkson University Volleyball team to a sweep of its first two opponents Friday night at the North Country Invitational.
The Golden Knights improved to 5-1 overall, beating Middlebury in five sets (25-8, 16-25, 27-25, 23-25, 18-16) and dominating Morrisville (25-14, 25-11, 25-10). They will play St. Lawrence University at 11:00 am.
In the first match, the Golden Knights came out swinging hard against Middlebury, but the Panthers recovered to tie the match up at 2-2. In the final set, Middlebury was up 10-6, but Clarkson rallied to take the win, setting up a likely push to the winners' bracket.
"We're very happy to get two wins in this tough pool and move on to defend out title tomorrow," said head coach Johan Dulfer. "I was very proud of our effort today and I thought the key to both matches was that we stayed aggressive out of system while limiting our errors. We knew coming in that Middlebury was going to get better as the match progressed and I was happy to see that our team was able to match their intenstiy and step it up along the way as well. This early in the season, it's great to see that we could come back from four points down in a fifth set, but it's the way we came back which impressed me the most. When it really counted we were aggressive, smart, and we did what we talked about before the match. We put our hearts on the line."
Artus produced 25 kills in the first match, a career-best, while Jenna Stock (Johnstown, NY) assisted on 55 kills overall. Sophomore Megan Mahon (Irvine, CA) added 11 kills while the defense was led by Alison Schroeder (Webster, NY) and Amanda Rankin (Horseheads, NY), who produced 17 and 12 digs, respectively. Senior Davanna Chetney (Fulton, NY) also contributed 10 digs.
The second match was not quite as spirited as the Knights owned Morrisville from the start. Artus had a hitting percentage of .440 for the match (16-4-25) and MacKenzie Cook (Syracuse, NY) was even more impressive with nine kills and no errors in just 14 swings. Jenna Stock had 34 assists and 8 digs, while Alison Schroeder cam ethrough with 19 digs and 4 aces. Jessica Agnew (Queensbury, NY) came through with eight digs as well.
