Box Score BURRISVILLE, R.I. – The No. 10 Manhattanville women's ice hockey team finished off its home-and-home weekend with the Nichols Bison on Saturday evening and defeated the home team by the score of 3-0.
 
Three different goal scorers found the back of the net for Manhattanville, started off by senior Alyssa Taylor (Craik, Saskatchewan/Sait Polytechnic (ACAC)) for her third goal in the two games against Nichols this weekend. Classmate Jessica Kehoe (Kemptville, Ontario/Nepean Wildcats (PWHL)) also scored for her third goal of the season, while freshman Melissa Hauptman (Smithtown, N.Y./Sound Shore Warriors (MAWHL)) scored for her first career tally.
 
Unlike yesterday, it was the Valiants who got on the board first as it was Taylor to score the opener at the 9:33 point of the first period. She was assisted by newly installed linemates Katie Little (Victoria, British Columbia/Team British Columbia) and Kehoe to open up the scoring.
 
Just over five minutes later Manhattanville took its first penalty of the night, but were able to hold off the Bison, who took two shots on the man-advantage and a combined six shots on goal for the first period.
 
During the second period, the Valiants put the game away as first it was Kehoe to score on an unassisted marker just over the halfway point of regulation time to make the score 2-0.
 
Minutes later it was Hauptman's turn to get on the score sheet after taking a pass from sophomore Aubrey Backhand, Hauptman threw the puck towards the net and notched the third and final goal of the contest.
 
The defense for Manhattanville did a solid job in the third period holding Nichols to only two shots, both of which were denied by junior goalkeeper Mary Evans (Ferndale, Mich./Honeybaked (TOEHL)). On the other end of the ice Francesa Palazzo picked up 15 saves in the period.
 
The 15 saves added to her previous 17 combined for a total of 32 saves for the game, but Palazzo dropped her second conference game of the season as she fell to 0-3 overall on the year. Evans earned the victory to improve to 6-5-1 as she finished the game with 16.
 
Manhattanville (9-5-1, 6-0-1 ECAC East) takes its unbeaten conference record into a matchup that will feature two nationally ranked teams, as longtime rivals Norwich comes to Terry Conners Rink on Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. with coverage of the game available on GoValiants.TV. Nichols (2-12-0, 0-8-0 ECAC East) will have a solid chance to earn its first conference win of the season as they welcome in St. Michael's to Levy Rink on Friday evening at 7:40 p.m.