Potsdam, NY – Since Saturday’s win over Potsdam State led to the first-ever 3-0 start for the Clarkson University Women’s Lacrosse team, it stands to reason that a win on Sunday would be the first-ever 4-0 start. More importantly, the Golden Knights have already matched last season’s win total as the Green and Gold cruised to a 15-7 victory over Elmira College Sunday afternoon at Hantz Turf Field.

The Golden Knights improved to 4-0 on the season and will travel to play Utica College on Saturday, March 27th. Elmira was swept this weekend, and fell to 2-3 overall.

Freshman Alyssa Cristaldi (North Syracuse, NY) started off the scoring for the Knights just 19 seconds into the contest, and Clarkson never looked back from that point on. Cristaldi scored or assisted on five of the first six goals of the game before sharing the wealth with her teammates as the Knights poured in nine goals prior to Elmira tallying its first goal, which came with less than four minutes remaining in the half. Classmate Katie VanDeValk (Baldwinsville, NY) and Kerrie Cline (Tuxedo, NY) also scored a pair of first-half goals, while Saryn Campbell (West Bolton, VT) added a goal and an assist.

Though Clarkson held an eight-goal advantage early in the second half, Elmira scored three straight goals in a span of 2 minutes, 15 seconds to make the score 11-6 with 18:49 remaining. However, the Knights responded quickly with three straight scores of their own as Cristaldi, Kimberly Loucks (Waterloo, NY) and VanDeValk converted to push the lead back to eight.

Cristaldi finished the game with seven points on five goals and two assist, while VanDeValk contributed four goals. Cline and Katherine Jondro (Waitsfield, VT) each added two goals. Elmira was led by Meghan Pass, who scored three goals, and Colette O’Brien, who added two.

Hannah Walters (Amherst, NY) made 14 saves on 21 shots on goal for Clarkson, and Stephanie McClure made 16 saves while allowing 15 goals for Elmira.

Clarkson held a 39-30 edge in shots and eight of Elmira’s 19 turnovers.