X

Knights women's lax win 10th of the season with 12-9 victory over St. Lawrence

Posted 4/12/18

Potsdam, NY – Junior Jaid Baytos matched her career-high in points with seven goals and an assist as the Clarkson University Women's Lacrosse team outscored St. Lawrence by four goals in the final …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Knights women's lax win 10th of the season with 12-9 victory over St. Lawrence

Posted

Potsdam, NY – Junior Jaid Baytos matched her career-high in points with seven goals and an assist as the Clarkson University Women's Lacrosse team outscored St. Lawrence by four goals in the final 13 minutes to claim a 12-9 Liberty League victory Wednesday afternoon at Hantz Turf Field.

The Golden Knights improved to 10-3 overall and 4-2 in Liberty League games, their second straight victory over St. Lawrence and third in the past four seasons. The Saints dropped to 3-8 overall and 1-5 in conference contests. Clarkson will look to solidify its spot in the top half of the conference standings this weekend when it travels to face RIT on Saturday afternoon.

Baytos had already produced four points on three goals and an assist in the first 42 minutes of Wednesday's contest, but she took over the game in the final 13 minutes, scoring four times to turn a one-goal deficit into a three-goal lead in less than six minutes. The eight-point game was her second such high-scoring match in the past two weeks.

It took little time for Clarkson to get on the scoreboard as the Knights won the opening draw and Katie Sergeant used a spin move at the top of the zone and ran around several defenders to score only 28 seconds in, emphatically spiking her stick for what the Green and Gold hoped would be the first of many goals in a lopsided win. That hope was squashed quickly as St. Lawrence responded with a goal just 10 seconds later after winning the ensuing draw.

St. Lawrence's offensive attack utilized many cuts in front and passers behind the net to create space, and the strategy worked in the early going as the Saints scored a pair of goals just 62 seconds apart to gain a 3-1 lead less than seven minutes into the contest. However, Clarkson recovered with a streak of its own when Baytos racked up three straight goals midway through the half to help the Knights reclaim the lead. Emma Andrews followed with a free-position goal at 11:23 and Lexi Smith found Sergeant in front on a one-timer at 5:52 to put Clarkson up 6-3. The Saints trimmed the lead back to two only 33 seconds later and Kayla Schmalz scored on a high shot with only 21 seconds left to reduce the margin to only one goal at the break.

Olga Lukas was busy in the Saints' crease in the first half, making nine saves as 15 of Clarkson's 17 shots were on the cage in the opening 30 minutes. St. Lawrence also made its shots count with nine of the 11 attempts on goal. Clarkson's speed allowed several players to get shooting-space fouls with an accompanying six free-position shots, but only Andrews was able to cash in on the opportunity.

The offenses were slowed in the second half, though back-to-back goals from St. Lawrence midway through the half gave the Saints an 8-7 advantage when Rachel Boghosian and Morgan Barlow scored two minutes apart. From that point on, however, everything went Clarkson's way. Jaid Baytos seemingly found a way to beat St. Lawrence goalkeeper Olga Lukas, going low three straight times on the left wing to break the tie and give the Knights an 11-8 advantage with just over seven minutes remaining. Sergeant would score on a high shot in front with less than five minutes to go, but an extra-attacker goal on a free-position shot with 3:03 pulled St. Lawrence back to within three. Clarkson won the next draw and after taking a shot with a little under two minutes to go, the Knights spent most of the waning moments sprinting around the offensive zone to run out the clock.

Clarkson owned a 33-22 advantage in shots, but a great deal of that lead was thanks to the performance of Baytos, who took 18 shots overall with 16 going between the pipes. Baytos finished with eight points and also added two groundballs and two draw controls, while Sergeant notched three goals. Emma Andrews also scored once and assisted on another goal for the Knights, with Taylor Collins contributing three groundballs, seven draws and three caused turnovers. Samantha Gladd also finished with 10 saves for Clarkson.

For St. Lawrence, Greta Massey recorded three goals and first-year collegian Campbell Armstrong assisted on two goals and scored one herself. Monica Manning scooped up four groundballs for the Saints, and Olga Lukas finished with 13 saves.