Schenectady, NY – Middle hitters Rachael Aird and Rachel Reusch combined to hit .385 with 25 kills as the Clarkson University Volleyball team opened up conference play with a three-set sweep of Union, 25-20, 27-25, 25-21, on Friday night.

The Golden Knights evened their overall record at 6-6 and moved to 1-0 in the seven-game conference schedule, while the Dutchwomen dropped to 6-8 and 0-1. Clarkson will take on Skidmore at 1:00 pm on Saturday to finish off its opening Liberty League weekend.

In the opening set, Clarkson scored four of the first five points of the game and never relinquished the lead. Union pulled to within one on a couple of occasions, but midway through the set Clarkson rattled off several kills from its middles to open up a five-point advantage. Though Union stuck close down the stretch, it was the doing of the Knights as the final four points for the Dutchwomen came on Clarkson errors. However, when the Knights needed offense late, they got it from an unlikely source as setter Jillian Saenz scored back-to-back kills to give Clarkson a set-point, and a Union miscue shortly thereafter gave the Knights the win, 25-20.

Though Union's offense came out strong in the second game, it was Clarkson errors that gave the Dutchwomen their early lead as the Knights committed six errors to help lift the home team to 12 points and an early lead. Down by three, Clarkson quickly rallied to tie the score up at 13-13, but from there neither team could gain much of a foothold to run away with the set, exchanging points all the way up to 20-20. Clarkson then scored two straight with a kill and block assist from Rachael Aird to force a Union timeout. The break worked briefly for the Dutchwomen, who tied the set for a 10th time, but Aird recorded another kill and a solo block to put the Knights back up by two. With two set points, Clarkson couldn't put the Dutchwomen away and the score was tied once again at 24-24 but a few moments later the Knights finally put the game away on their fourth set point thanks to a Rachel Reusch kill (27-25).

Though Clarkson had some offensive missteps in the first two sets, it paled in comparison to Union's troubles in the third. Though the Dutchwomen boasted an early two-point lead, Clarkson took the lead at 10-9 thanks to seven unforced errors by Union. Both teams settled down with some cleaner points, capped off by a Savannah Peters ace, Clarkson's sixth of the match, to give the Knights a 14-12 advantage and push the Dutchwomen into a timeout. Peters added another ace later to give the Knights a four-point lead (16-12), but Union rallied to score six of the next seven points thanks to three kills and three errors by the Knights, forcing Clarkson into one-point deficit and a timeout. The back and forth continued after the short break, though, as the Knights scored three straight on a kill from Aird and back-to-back blocks from the front row. Union would get back to within one, but Rachel Reusch delivered three kills in Clarkson's final five points to close out the set (25-21) and the match.

Aird finished with 14 kills with four errors on 26 swings to go along with four total blocks (one solo, three assists) and Reusch struck for 11 kills against just one error in 26 tries, adding in six total blocks (two solo, four assists). Jillian Saenz chipped in four block assists and ran the offense with 31 assists. Meghan Edmund recorded 12 digs and three aces, while Kate Isaksen added in 11 digs.

For Union, Gillian Gore recorded a team-best 14 kills and Lara Atalay had a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs. Caroline Everts led the team with 13 digs and Sage Shimamoto produced 33 assists.