Carly Mercer, senior captain on the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team, scored both of the Golden Knights goals as the Green and Gold won their fourth straight game with a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Syracuse University on Friday night.

Ranked third in the nation, Clarkson (4-0) will host Syracuse (1-2) on Saturday in a 4:00 p.m. contest at Cheel Arena to close out the home-and-home, non-league weekend series. The Knights have won five straight over the Orange, with four of those games decided by just one goal.

"That was a very exciting and fun game tonight as both teams played hard," stated Clarkson co-head coach Matt Desrosier. "We were very happy with the way the team matched Syracuse's intensity right from the drop of the puck. It was a great road win for us as we definitely needed to battle hard. I'm looking forward to another exciting game tomorrow at Cheel Arena."

Friday nights' win at Syracuse was the 200th all-time win for Clarkson, now in its 11th season as a Division I program. The Knights' all-time record stands at 200-130-40.

"I thought Carly Mercer played extremely well tonight," remarked Matt Desrosier. "She really stepped up as our captain and led the way. All her hard work and tenacity paid off with a couple nice goals going to the net hard."

Mercer tallied her first goal with 1:40 remaining in the first period off of assists from senior Jamie Lee Rattray (Kanata, ONT) and her sister, sophomore Cayley Mercer (Exeter, ONT).

After a scoreless second period, Mercer struck again early in the final frame, at 3:34, with Rattray and sophomore defenseman Erin Ambrose (Keswick, ONT) setting up the goal.

With her her two-point night Rattray moved into second place on the Knights' all-time scoring charts with 123 career points (51-72), including eight points (3-5) this season.

Syracuse made it close with a 5x3 power-play goal by Nicole Renault at 12:28.

The Knights outshot the Orange 41-18. Senior Erica Howe (Ottawa, ONT) made 17 saves for Clarkson, while Kallie Billadeau posted 39 stops for the home team.

Clarkson was 0-of-5 on the power play, while Syracuse connected for one goal in five man-advantage chances.