Potsdam, NY - Freshman Victoria Kirkemo (Englewood, CO) struck for 15 kills with only three errors to help lead the Clarkson University Volleyball team to a three-set sweep of St. Lawrence 25-16, 25-21, 25-16 in the Liberty League conference opener Tuesday night at Alumni Gymnasium.

The Golden Knights won their fifth straight match and improved to 10-3 overall and 1-0 in the Liberty League, while the Saints fell to 4-10 and 0-1 in conference games. Clarkson heads to Rochester this weekend to take on RIT, Bard and Vassar.

Though the Saints enjoyed some brief runs in the match, Clarkson controlled the pace with its serve throughout. The Golden Knights finished with just five aces overall, but the consistent pressure that Clarkson placed on St. Lawrence kept the Saints off balance all evening and never provided the visitors with many chances to put away points.

Junior setter Lani Durio (Austin, TX) had 40 assists and eight digs in the match, guiding Kirkemo to her 15 kills and classmate Aishvina Arasu (Brea, CA) to nine kills on only 21 swings. Sophomore Adrienne Walker (Centennial, CO) added in eight kills in just 15 attempts as well. Defensively, Erika Chin (Katy, TX) had 13 digs to lead the Knights.

"It feels great to start conference play with a win," Clarkson head coach Johan Dulfer said. "Any time St. Lawrence comes into the gym there is great energy and I thought that we did well using that energy. We established our middles early and that really helped open things up down the stretch. We were a little tentative passing and playing defense, but it's nice to realize that there is potential to step it up as the season continues. I'm proud of the team for learning how to battle consistently."

St. Lawrence had a diverse attack with Lexi Brown and Rebecca Doser lead the way with six kills each and Anna Kassab had 13 assists. Katie Prue contributed a team-best 11 digs for the Saints.