Box Score HOBOKEN, N.J. – The Manhattanville field hockey team dropped their season opener on Friday night by the score of 1-0 to the Juniata Eagles. In the loss junior Amy Hilton (Pittsburgh, Pa./Kents Hill (Maine)) made a career-high 17 saves while classmate Amanda DeChent (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) led the offensive attack with seven shots on the evening, including one that hit the crossbar as time had expired at the end of regulation.
 
The Valiants got off to a slow start as they were outshot in the early going of the game by a 16-0 margin through the first 23 minutes of action. Manhattanville recorded their first shot of the year at the 23:25 mark of the game when DeChent sent one wide of Eagle goalkeeper Janelle Howard.
 
During the first half Hilton made eight saves while junior Julia Esposito (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) picked up a defensive save, freshman Renee LaFosse (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) also picked up a pair of defensive saves to get on the stat sheet for the first time in her career.
 
Just 50 seconds into the second period Juniata notched what turned out to be the lone goal of the game as Caroline Phillips picked up her first of the season. Several minutes later the Valiant offense sparked and Manhattanville got a pair of shots from DeChent and one from freshman Sharon Konfederak (Buenos Aires, Argentina/The Washington School) who picked up her first career shot.
 
Down the stretch of the game, Juniata continued their control and outshot Manhattanville 8-2, until they committed a foul in the offensive circle which allowed Manhattanville to take a penalty corner chance as time had expired. After freshman Rylee McGuire (Grantham, N.H./Lebanon) inbounded the ball, DeChent ripped a shot that rang off the crossbar and was within inches of tying the game.
 
While the shot was recorded the Eagles took another penalty which allowed the Valiants to take advantage of another penalty corner well after regulation had expired, but Manhattanville was unable to get a shot off as the referees ended the contest.
 
In the second half Hilton recorded nine more saves to give her 17 on the evening, well above her previous career-high of 10 saves in a game which was done twice last season. Earning the win to move to 1-0 on the year was Howard who made three saves, while Hilton took the loss to fall to 0-1.

The match was the second of the day after the first featured defending national College of New Jersey against the host team Stevens Institute of Technology. Tomorrow TCNJ will take on Juniata, while Manhattanville takes the field against Stevens with the game slated to begin at 4:30 p.m.