CENTER VALLEY, Pa.- The Manhattanville field hockey team was held scoreless against DeSales on Wednesday afternoon, falling to the Bulldogs by a final score of 5-0 in Freedom Conference play.
 
Sophomore Meghan Hughes (Kintnersville, Pa./Palisades) and freshman Kaitlin Halloran (Nesconset, N.Y./Smithtown East) split time in between the pipes for Manhattanville (3-13, 0-5 Freedom), seeing 26 total shots from DeSales (10-6, 4-1 Freedom). The Valiants rattled off 19 shots in the contest, but were unable to beat Bulldogs' goalkeeper Becky Rasmuson.
 
Rasmuson tallied eight saves in net for the Bulldogs before picking up her fifth shutout of the season, helping DeSales remain in first place in the Freedom Conference standings.  With the loss for Manhattanville, the Valiants are officially eliminated from any playoff chance.
 
On the offensive end for DeSales, Alison Malatesta registered an assist on four of the five Bulldogs' goals. The first goal of the game came early, occurring in the third minute as Tess Luzi collected a pass from Malatesta, beating Hughes for the score. DeSales scored four goals in the first half, making it difficult for the Valiants to mount a comeback.
 
With the dominant play of Rasmuson in net, the Valiants were unable to score any goals past the junior net-minder. For the Valiants, Hughes collected six saves on 14 first half shots from the Bulldogs, allowing four goals before being replaced by Halloran in the second half. Halloran picked up five saves on 12 shots in the second half, giving up one goal in the loss.
 
Manhattanville will next play on Saturday at 1 p.m. against Eastern at GoValiants.com Field. Graduate student Kirsten Savage (Harrington Park, N.J./Old Tappan) will be honored for Senior Day. Both live stats and live video are available via GoValiants.com.