Clarkson Falls One Goal Short at RIT

Alyssa Cristaldi closed out her Clarkson career with a school-record 262 points

Despite another productive offensive outing the Clarkson University Women’s Lacrosse team came up just short in its bid for a fourth straight victory, falling 17-16 in Liberty League play at the Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday afternoon.

Guided by first-year co-head coaches Ben Gaebel and Christy Foster, the Golden Knights finished the 2013 campaign with their best record ever at 11-5 overall record and narrowly missed out on a Liberty League Tournament berth, holding a 4-5 conference mark.

RIT (10-6, 5-4) opened the game, scoring the first four goals, but the Knights got on track and took a 10-6 lead at the break. The Tigers, however, came out strong to start the second half, and cut Clarkson’s lead to one goal at 11-10 with 16 minutes to play. The Green and Gold built their margin to 14-12 with 10:15 remaining, but RIT finished strong, scoring five of the last seven goals to gain the one-goal win on its home turf.

Freshman Christine Wright (Watertown, NY) led the Knights with five goals. Senior Katie VanDeValk (Baldwinsville, NY) tallied four times and classmate Alyssa Cristaldi (North Syracuse, NY) added three goals and an assist.

Clarkson held a slim 31-29 edge in shots, while RIT led in ground balls 22-14.

Sage Sarkis and Shelby Vakiener led the home team with eight and seven goals, respectively.

The Knights, led by the strong play of senior Noelle Miller (Hamburg, NY), controlled draws 23-11.

Miller along with classmates Nicole Kelly (Syracuse, NY), Kerrie Cline (Tuxedo, NY) and Marissa Mastronardi (Cortland, NY) scored a goal apiece for Clarkson.

Senior Jeannette Pendergast (Greenfield Center, NY) and Wright scooped up a team-high three ground balls for the Knights.

Junior Kara DiNatale (Auburn, NY) made seven saves in the Clarkson net.

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