Five unanswered goals in the middle of the second half propelled the Clarkson University Women's Lacrosse team to an 11-9 victory over visiting RIT in its Liberty League opener on Friday afternoon on Hantz Turf Field.

Clarkson owns an impressive 7-1 overall record, while the Tigers fall to 0-1 in league with a 3-5 overall record. The Golden Knights have now won a program-record seven straight games after narrowly falling to defending national champion Cortland in the season opener.

Clarkson started the contest strong, scoring four of the first five goals. Leading scorer Christine Wright opened the scoring quickly followed by a goal from Kate Dillon with Taylor Collins getting the assist. A RIT free-position goal cut into Clarkson's lead, but the Golden Knights answered through goals from Dillon and Ashley Flick. Collins again had the assist on Dillon's goal before Dillon turned into the provider on Flick's score. RIT clawed back with two goals of its own, both coming from Sage Sarkis.

However the rally seemed short lived as Stephanie Lynch and Flick scored to make the score 6-3 in favor of the Green and Gold.

Those were the last scores for Clarkson for more than ten minutes of game time though and during that drought, Sarkis took over the game. She scored with a minute left in the first half to make the score 6-4 heading into the break, and then reeled off three straight goals to start the second half to give RIT its first lead of 7-6.

Clarkson did not break and was able to answer with its own run of goals. Collins scored to tie the game at seven, and then assisted another Dillon goal to put Clarkson back in front. Flick and Wright then scored back-to-back free position goals before Casey Shannon scored her first goal of the game to cap Clarkson's five goal rally.

RIT added some late game drama when the Tigers scored two goals in the final minute of the game, but that was as close as they got as Clarkson closed out the 11-9 victory.

Collins finished with one goal and four assists with Dillon and Flick each scoring three goals. Flick and Hannah Gleason both had a team high three ground ball pickups with Gleason forcing five RIT turnovers. Samantha Gladd made six saves, three in each half, in goal for Clarkson. Wright led the way with three draw controls and Lynch and Dillon each had a pair as well. Clarkson had a 30-18 advantage in shots and was successful on 17 of 18 clear attempts.

The Golden Knights will play their second game of the weekend tomorrow when they host conference foe Rochester at 3:00 p.m.