Box Score CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – Senior Brittney Smith (Stratford, Conn./Bunnell) registered the first hat trick of her career, scoring all three times in the second half, to lift the Manhattanville women's soccer team out of a one-goal halftime deficit and past DeSales, 3-1, in a Freedom Conference matchup on Tuesday afternoon at the DUC Soccer Field.
 
Manhattanville (6-8, 2-3 Freedom) keeps its slim hopes of a Freedom Conference Tournament berth alive with the victory, as the Valiants move up to fifth place in the standings with two very tough conference matches still to go. DeSales (6-8-1, 1-4 Freedom) falls into eighth place with the defeat.
 
Smith was the star of the match for Manhattanville, posting the second multi-goal game of her career and first three-goal contest to singlehandedly lead the Valiants to victory. Classmate Morgan Rebollal (Holtsville, N.Y./Sachem East) had a pair of assists and freshman Rebecca Breve (Tegucigalpa, Honduras/American School of Tegucigalpa) added an assist as well for the visitors in the win.
 
After Manhattanville went into the break down by goal, the Valiants came out determined to change that to start the second half. After freshman Lauren Guglielmo (Middletown, N.J./Middletown South) put a pair of shots on goal in the first four minutes, Smith finally broke through in the 53rd minute by redirecting a crossing pass from Rebollal for her sixth tally of the year.
 
Less than three minutes later it was Smith again finding the back of the net, as this time it was Breve providing the centering pass that the senior buried to give Manhattanville its first lead of the afternoon.
 
The Valiant defense held DeSales in check for most of the half after that, allowing only two shots to reach the net of freshman Grace Kraemer (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa). The Bulldogs were still looking for that equalizer in the 86th minute when Rebollal capitalized on an aggressive DSU defense to feed a long ball through the back line to Smith, who buried it into the far corner to seal the win and complete the hat trick.
 
DeSales had got on the scoreboard first in the 16th minute, when Jamie Barna corralled the rebound of a Melissa Pugliese shot and beat Kraemer for her fourth tally of the year.
 
For the game, Manhattanville posted a slight 12-11 edge in total shots and a 6-5 advantage in on-target balls, while the Valiants were also whistled for 16 offsides in their constant attempts to get the ball to goal. Kraemer picked up her sixth win of the year by making four saves, while Alex Bastinelli had three saves for DeSales in a losing effort.
 
The Valiants will continue Freedom Conference play on Saturday, as the Valiants travel to regionally-ranked Wilkes for a 1 p.m. match.