Box Score MADISON, N.J. – The Manhattanville women's lacrosse team could not capitalize on its chances offensively and was unable to gain momentum all game long as the fourth-seeded Valiants fell to top-seeded FDU-Florham, 17-8, in the semifinal round of the Freedom Conference Tournament, held on Wednesday night at Shields Field.
 
FDU-Florham (12-6, 6-0 Freedom) advances to the inaugural Freedom Conference championship game with the win, where the Devils will host second-seeded Eastern on Saturday. Manhattanville (4-13, 3-3 Freedom) sees its season come to a close with the loss.
 
Three Valiants tied for the team lead with three points apiece on Wednesday night, as junior Melissa Goncalves (Holtsville, N.Y./Sachem East) and sophomore Casandra Honovich (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Walter Panas) both had two goals and an assist while sophomore Brooke Marcimo (Shrewsbury, Mass./Shrewsbury) chipped in a goal and two assists.
 
For Honovich, she finished the season with 66 goals, the most by a Valiant since 2002 and just one off the program single-season record of 67 set by Liz McNamee '03. She also finished the year fifth on the school's single-season points list with 78, while Goncalves finished the year tied for seventh on the single-season assist list with a career-high 20 helpers as well.
 
The Devils came out strong to begin the evening, scoring on their first four shots and five of the first seven to open up a five-goal advantage with 20 minutes left in the half. The teams traded goals until FDU-Florham scored two in a row from Sara Slicklen and Katie Rolwood to open up their largest lead of the half at 8-2 with 6:14 remaining.
 
But the Valiants seemed to find their comfort zone later in the half, as Honovich scored a pair of goals to make it 8-4 and junior Emy Cote (Saint-Hubert, Quebec/Dawson College) made a highlight-reel stop on Caitlyn McGinley to keep it that way. But with the visitors pressing for another goal before the half that might have turned the tide, FDU-Florham forced a turnover in the offensive end and Katie Rolwood sprinted down the field to find the back of the net with four seconds left, giving the Devils a five-goal edge at the half.
 
That goal seemed to re-energize the Devils heading into the second half, as they won the draw to start the half and extended their lead back to six on a Breana Kilpatrick free-position tally 97 seconds in. Kilpatrick scored three of her team's next four goals as well to start the frame, allowing the Devils to keep the Valiants at a distance.
 
The remainder of the contest was an exercise in frustration on the part of the Valiants, as the visitors were unable to string together more than one goal and hit at least three posts in the second half alone.
 
Senior Ashley DeMarco (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) scored the final goal of the game for Manhattanville in her final collegiate contest, making it a 16-8 game before FDU added one more with 60 seconds remaining.
 
FDU-Florham finished the game with a 29-19 edge in shots, although the Valiants posted an 18-14 advantage in ground balls. Grace Warburton made four saves to earn the win for FDU-Florham, while Cote suffered the loss for the Valiants despite making seven saves.
 
The game marks the final collegiate contest for the Valiants' five graduating players: Cote, DeMarco, Nicole Catapano (Franklin Square, N.Y./H. Frank Carey), Danielle Scicutella (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) and Liz Cooper (Old Greenwich, Conn./The Forman School).