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RYE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville women's hockey team closed out the regular season with a 7-0 whitewash over the Plymouth State Panthers on Saturday afternoon. Senior
Jackie Solomito (Sea Cliff, N.Y./Niagara University (CHA)) shined on Senior Day, collecting a career-high four points in the victory.
Prior to the contest, Manhattanville honored their four graduating seniors in an on-ice ceremony. Solomito,
Lauren Nutkevitch (Montreal, Quebec/Dawson College),
Hannah Muskego (Neilburg, Saskatchewan/PWM Steelers (AMMFHL)) and
Emy Cote (Saint-Hubert, Quebec/Dawson College) were all mentioned for their service wearing the crimson and white of Manhattanville.
Just as they had done the night before against Southern Maine, Manhattanville jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead just 1:32 into the contest as freshman Michelle Meggiolaro scored her first career goal on the backhand after deking around a Panther defender. Junior Kelly Keane (Longmeadow, Mass./New England Falcons (EJHL)) earned her second assist of the season on the play.
Junior Mary Rose Morrison (Ridgefield, Conn./Connecticut Stars (MFYHL)) put the Valiants up 2-0 as she picked the top corner of the cage and sent it home after some crisp passing around the net from classmate Sonia Occhionero (Montreal, Quebec/Kent School (Conn.)) and sophomore Haleigh Hutchinson (Allen Park, Mich./Honeybaked (TOEHL)). The Valiants continued to pour it on less than two minutes later when junior Jessica Kehoe (Kemptville, Ontario/Nepean Wildcats (PWHL)) gave the Valiants a 3-0 lead on a great individual effort to take the puck away in the Plymouth end of the ice and score her fourth of the season.
With 1:07 to go in the opening period, Solomito picked up the first of her four points when she sent the puck past Panther netminder Nicole Provencher to put Manhattanville up by four, with assists being credited to juniors Lynsey Schill (Waterloo, Ontario/Kitchener Rangers (PWHL)) and Katie Little (Victoria, British Columbia/Team British Columbia).
After 20 minutes of play the Valiants skated to the dressing room, up by four and looking for more going into the second period. In the first period the Valiants outshot their guests by a 26-5 margin while going 1-for-4 on their power play chances. Manhattanville did not commit an infraction during the opening frame.
In the second period, Plymouth State committed a penalty just 2:37 into the period and gave the Valiants their fifth extra skater chance of the night, and they capitalized. Junior Alyssa Taylor (Craik, Saskatchewan/Sait Polytechnic (ACAC)) scored her first goal since January 13 against Nichols with assists being credited to Solomito and Schill. The goal turned out to be the only one scored in the stanza as Manhattanville dominated in shots once again at a 13-2 clip.
In the third, Manhattanville scored twice more as Little scored her team-leading 13th goal of the year with assists from newly formed linemates Solomito and Taylor. During a 4-on-4, Manhattanville capped the scoring as Solomito netted her second goal and fourth point of the night with a shot from the top of the left wing circle. Sophomore Mallory Watts (Bloomfield, Mich./Honeybaked (MWEHL)) picked up her second helper of the game and freshman Trenah Stauffer (Salmon, Idaho/Colorado Select (JWHL)) notched her first career point with the secondary assist.
In goal, Cote was forced to make just nine stops through 60 minutes of play while finishing the regular season at 7-7-2. Provencher made 46 games in her final collegiate game and falls to 0-3-1 on the season while yielding the seven Valiant goals.
Manhattanville (13-8-4, 11-4-3 ECAC East) will now look ahead to a week from today when they take on UMass Boston in the ECAC East Tournament quarterfinals on Saturday, February 25 at 3:00 p.m. from the Playland Ice Casino, with game coverage will be available on GoValiants.TV. Plymouth State finishes the year with a 1-19-3 (1-15-2 ECAC East) record.
