Box Score BOSTON, Mass. – The Manhattanville women's hockey team, ranked 10th by USCHO.com and 8th by D3Hockey.com in the latest national polls, picked up its first win of the season on Friday afternoon, defeating the Beacons of UMass Boston by a score of 4-2.   Michele Meggiolaro (Whippany, N.J./New Jersey Colonials (MAWHA)) and Jerin Dinkins (Grants Pass, Ore./National Sports Academy) recorded two points each as the Valiants move to 1-1-1 (1-0-0 ECAC East) on the young season.

Manhattanville opened the scoring early as Dinkins scored the first goal of her college career just 89 seconds into the game.  Dinkins received a pass from fellow freshman Jena Nicholls (Buffalo Narrows, Saskatchewan/Ontario Hockey Academy) and was able to shoot the puck past UMass goaltender Casey Schaejbe to give the Valiants a 1-0 lead.

Kirsten Shaughnessy (Le Center, Minn./LeSueur-Henderson St. Peter) had another solid game in between the pipes.  After Manhattanville jumped out to the early lead, Shaughnessy made 16 saves in the first period to help her team keep the advantage heading into the second period.

Manhattanville really opened the flood gates in the second period, scoring two goals just 25 seconds apart.  The first goal, scored at the 4:23 mark, came off a faceoff win by Alla Traun (Edina, Minn./Minnesota Thoroughbreds (JWHL)), when Meggiolaro's shot found its way between the legs of Schaejbe to give the Valiants a 2-0 lead.  The Valiants' continued pressure paid off as just 25 seconds later as Meggiolaro was able to push the puck past a pinching Beacon defender and start a 3-on-1 odd-man rush.  Meggiolaro was able to saucer a beautiful pass onto the tape of junior Trenah Stauffer (Salmon, Idaho/Colorado Select (JWHL)) on the backdoor, which Stauffer calmly put past Shaejbe.  Just like that, the Valiants had a 3-0 lead. 

The lead was cut to 3-1 with less than two minutes to go in the second period as UMass Boston senior forward Katie Loiselle was able to get put home a Kat Armstrong pass and narrow the gap before intermission.

The game got a little closer just over halfway through the third period as the Beacons converted on a power-play opportunity, as Jenny Curie scored an unassisted goal.  But that was all Shaughnessy was willing to allow on the day as she turned away an impressive 40 of the 42 shots she faced to earn the win.  Dinkins scored her second goal of the game on an empty netter with 28 seconds to play as the Valiants finished off the game by a final score of 4-2.

Manhattanville doesn't get much rest as the Valiants will travel to Manchester, N.H., for tomorrow's matchup against Saint Anselm beginning at 1 p.m.