POTSDAM -- After suffering a five-set defeat at the hands of the top-ranked team in the country on Friday night, the Clarkson University Volleyball program took out two teams that were receiving votes in the pre-season AVCA poll, beating SUNY New Paltz in three sets and Roger Williams in four sets.

"At the start of the tournament, I felt our team was a little unsettled about exactly how good we could be," head coach Johan Dulfer said. "Pre-season never answers every question about a team and it will take a lot more time before we finally figure out our identity. This weekend, however, also ended up answering a lot of questions. I'm so proud of our ability to be calm and poised when it mattered and of the fact that it took absolutely everybody on the roster to get these results this weekend. The coaching staff looks forward to seeing our identity develop one weekend at a time."

In the first set, New Paltz scored seven of the first 10 points of the match, but the Golden Knights recovered from a three-point deficit (9-6) and scored nine straight points to gain a six-point advantage (15-9). Though the Hawks stalled the run, Clarkson went on another 8-1 run to double up New Paltz and eventually settled for a 25-14 first-set victory.

In set two, the game was tied 6-6 when Clarkson took the lead for good, but the Hawks would not go away, fighting back to within a point at 11-10, and after being down by five, within three at 20-17. However, a diverse offense from Clarkson that saw six different players get a kill allowed the Knights to pull late before completing the 25-20 win.

The final set was tight until the midway point when New Paltz was forced to take a timeout at 13-10, which ended the run momentarily. After New Paltz scored one points, Clarkson rattled off five of the next six and later on scored five straight to push the advantage to nine. The Hawks produce a pair of points, but Victoria Kirkemo (Englewood, CO) finished off the match with a kill to give Clarkson the sweep.

Kirkemo finished with 11 kills and Adrienne Walker (Centennial, CO) hit .500 (7-0-14) to lead Clarkson offensively. Kirstie Shurie (LaCanada, CA) had 32 assists and Evanne Jimenez (Ventura, CA) recorded 16 digs. For New Paltz, Becca Borquist had a match-best 14 kills, while Maddie Zwickl came through with 24 assists, two aces, and five digs.

In the final match of the day, the Golden Knights came out swinging with 18 kills in the first set, with nearly all of them coming from three hitters, Victoria Kirkemo (6), Adrienne Walker (5) and Aishvina Arasu (5). Though the set was close in the early going, Clarkson used a couple of runs to quickly change the outlook, including a 10-1 run over the final 11 points, which ended on an Arasu crosscourt kill.

The second set saw the Knights' hitting percentage drop as Roger Williams made some adjustments on defense and was able to put up a more difficult block. The Hawks also picked up their pace on offense and though Clarkson appeared read to rally back from a modest deficit late in the set, Roger Williams scored three of the final four points to hold off the Knights charge, 25-22.

In set number three, Clarkson's offense continued to struggle, but down by five late (20-15), coach Dulfer made a switch that had three defensive specialists on the back line and just two offensive options up front. The change worked, as Clarkson scored six straight with a combination of aces, blocks, and kills as well as some errors by the Hawks. With a block and kill by Arasu, the Knights completed the comeback by tallying 10 of the final 12 points.

After trailing early on, Clarkson put on an impressive run midway through the fourth set that turned a two-point deficit into a six-point lead, thanks in large part to Adrienne Walker's run from the service line. However, Roger Williams countered with six straight points of its own to tie the game back up. Clarkson pushed its advantage to two points late at 24-22, and the Knights appeared to have closed out the match, but a net violation and a hitting error forced extra time. The Knights actually trailed 26-25 after an error, but a Danielle Farabee kill put Clarkson back up and the Green and Gold held on for the four-set win.

Arasu finished with 20 kills, Kirkemo added 15, and Walker added 11 kills. Kirstie Shurie produced 50 assists in the four-set match and also tied for the team lead with 12 digs with Evanne Jimenez. For Roger Williams, Elizabeth Flaherty had 14 kills as did Sarah McAniff. Josalyn Benson finished with 36 assists.