Against Clarkson, RPI got into an early hole. The Golden Knights controlled the opening faceoff and Lindsey Grigg found the back of the net just 29 seconds in. The Red Hawks responded with a vengeance, scoring six straight goals in a 13 minute span.

Junior Kate Phillips tied the score, a minute after the Grigg goal, off an assist by senior Hilary Lahn. Nine minutes later, freshman Natalie White gave RPI the lead for good on a nice individual effort.

After junior Rebecca Primm scored off a pass from freshman Carly Strife, White sandwiched a goal between two Lahn goals.

Lindsay Roberts pulled Clarkson back within four with a free position goal with 14 minutes left in the half. Phillips and White increased the lead to six with two goals a minute apart at the 12:02 mark of the game’s first session.

Senior Elisa Prange managed to score her first goal of the season between two more Golden Knight goals to give the Red Hawks a 9-4 lead at halftime.

In the second half, sophomore Brianne Balzer and Lahn alternated goals with Clarkson’s Lindsay Walker and Alicia Chace in the first 10 minutes of the second half to push the score to 11-6.

RPI dominated the final 20 minutes of the contest, outscoring the Golden Knights 5-1 to walk away with a 16-7 victory. Freshman Tory Lyons, junior Jen Wahl, Primm, Phillips, and Balzer tallied the Rensselaer goals.

Erin Duffy had eight saves in the loss and junior Megan Gaul saved 14 shots for Rensselaer.

On Saturday, the Red Hawks again fell behind when Susanna Whitaker-Rahilly came from behind the net to beat Gaul and give the Saints a 1-0 lead 5:10 into the game. Four minutes later, sophomore Sabrina Alimi fed a pass to a cutting White, who fired a shot just inside the left post to tie the score at 1-1.

After Whitaker-Rahilly tallied her second goal of the game, White responded with her second goal with 14:19 left in the period. RPI took a 4-2 lead on free position goals by Lahn and Phillips in a two minute span.

St. Lawrence climbed back into the game on goals by Julia Palmateer 26 seconds after Phillips’ goal, and Whitaker-Rahilly with 33 seconds left in the half to send the game into halftime tied at four.

The Red Hawks clamped down on defense in the second half and the offense got five of the first six goals of the period to give RPI a 9-5 lead with 11 minutes left in the game. Lahn fed both Phillips and Strife perfect passes for goals 76 seconds apart to get the offense going.

After Gaul made two huge saves on Whitaker-Rahilly, the Red Hawks worked the ball into the Saints’ zone and White found the back of the net for a three-goal lead. St. Lawrence took a timeout to talk things over and it worked as they won control of the draw and Caroline Cherry finished an Erin Mellow pass just 26 seconds after White’s goal.

Lahn took over the offense for RPI, scoring three of the next four goals to put RPI up 10-6 with just under nine and a half minutes remaining. An Avery Cushman goal with 1:31 left pulled the Saints back within three but it was too little, too late, as the Red Hawks came away with back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

Rebecca Timbers and Cynthia Saul combined for seven saves for St. Lawrence, who fell to 7-3 overall. Gaul, who was named Liberty League Defensive Performer of the Week, finished with eight saves in the victory. Lahn was named Liberty League Offensive Performer of the Week after recording seven goals and four assists on the weekend.