Rochester, NY - Because of the teams involved, the Clarkson University Volleyball team can't go quite so far as to clinch a spot in the Liberty League playoffs this weekend, but the Golden Knights are certainly off to a great start as they reached the midway point of the conference slate with an unbeaten record of 6-0 with sweeps of RIT and Bard on Friday afternoon.

The Golden Knights, ranked 18th in the latest AVCA Coaches' Poll, won their sixth and seventh straight matches on Friday to improve to 14-3 overall and 6-0 in the Liberty League. Clarkson looks to continue its momentum on Saturday when it takes on St. Lawrence and Vassar.

In a rematch of last year's league championship match, the Golden Knights claimed a three-set win against RIT (25-20, 25-21, 25-22). While many of the statistics were even in the match, Clarkson limited its mistakes while forcing the Tigers into several miscues, resulting in a hitting percentage of just .104 with seven blocks by the Knights. Offensively, senior Aishvina Arasu led the team with 13 kills and just three errors in 24 swings (.417 hitting percentage) while Victoria Kirkemo contributed eight more kills. Sierra Rhoades produced three aces and Tara Stilwell led the team with 11 digs while adding in three assists. Senior setter Kirstie Shurie had a solid all-around match with 23 assists, eight digs and four block assists.

The second match of the day saw the Golden Knights force Bard into hitting negative for the second time in two weeks in a three-set win for Clarkson (25-10, 25-15, 25-7). Clarkson's offensive numbers were down overall as Kirkemo had a team-best five kills, but that was partially because Clarkson earned more than 20 percent of its points from the service line with 16 aces. Stilwell had the best run with six aces in the three sets, adding in a team-best seven digs. Arasu and Katrina Lane also had four kills, while Danielle Farabee had three kills, three blocks, and three digs. Shurie had 15 assists.