Box Score PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville field hockey team opened the home portion of their 2012 schedule with a 4-0 win over Division II Mercy on Tuesday afternoon at GoValiants.com Field. The Valiants were led by freshman Sharon Konfederak (Buenos Aires, Argentina/The Washington School), who scored a pair of goals in the victory.
 
The game started out slow for both sides as they began to feel one another out, and just under four minutes into the game Manhattanville was awarded their first penalty corner of the afternoon. In the ensuing minutes the Valiants earned four more penalty corners while taking eight shots. On the eighth shot of the series Konfederak connected for her first goal of the afternoon after taking a pass from junior Amanda DeChent (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley).
 
Over the next 10 minutes of game action the Valiants outshot their guests by a 6-0 margin. The sixth shot of the set came from senior Rebecca McClintock (Accord, N.Y./Rondout Valley) and it turned into her first career goal as she sent it past Mercy keeper Jacque Tworkowski.
 
Manhattanville added to their lead 11 minutes later when Konfederak notched her second of the game and third of the season on a rebound after the initial shot was taken by DeChent. With the score 3-0 the Valiants cruised into halftime after outshooting their guests by a comfortable 17-4 margin.
 
In the second half the Valiants started a player down after a last minute yellow card in the first half, but it didn't stop the Manhattanville attack. The Valiants opened up the period by outshooting the Mavericks by an 8-2 differential. After the ball was deep in their own defensive zone Manhattanville cleared it out to midfield where DeChent picked up the ball and sent it through a Maverick defender to senior Kayla Meenan (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent), who tapped the ball home to make it 4-0 at the 14:27 mark of the half.
 
Through the final 21 minutes of action Mercy could only muster one more shot to Manhattanville's eight as the Valiants went on for a 70 minute total of 34 shots. Meanwhile the Mavericks finished the game with seven shots. Penalty corners were also in favor of the crimson and white by a 22-7 differential.
 
In goal for Manhattanville was junior Amy Hilton (Pittsburgh, Pa./Kents Hill (Maine)) (1-1), who stopped four shots to earn her first victory of the season and the fourth shutout of her career. For Mercy, Kristen Znaniecki took the loss to fall to 0-3 on the season after making 12 saves and allowing three of Manhattanville's four goals. Tworkowski played in just under three minutes of game action and allowed one goal while making two stops.
 
Manhattanville (1-2) will be back in action this weekend when they return to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. as they look to defend their Betty Richey Tournament title that they had won a season ago at Vassar College. The first game takes place on Friday at 5:00 p.m. against Smith College with the consolation and championship matches taking place a day later on September 8.