PURCHASE, N.Y. – Sophomore Carly Weiss (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) led all players with a career-high six goals and eight points as the Manhattanville College women's lacrosse team outscored New England College by an 8-2 margin over the final 24:07 to pick up a 15-10 victory over the Pilgrims in non-conference action on Sunday afternoon at GoValiants.com Field.
 
Making her first appearance as a Valiant, Weiss had a big second half as the home team pulled away for the win, scoring four of the team's last eight goals. Freshman Kat Reilly (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem North) had two of her three tallies late in the game as well, while junior Jenna Nance (Glendale, Calif./Glendale) also had three points on two goals and an assist for Manhattanville (2-1) in her Valiant debut.
 
At the other end of the field, junior Lauren Cassidy (Oceanside, N.Y./Oceanside) had a big game in between the pipes, turning aside 13 shots – including nine saves in the second half when the Valiants were taking control of the contest. Thanks in large part to Cassidy, NEC (2-3) was limited to just one goal on 14 free-position shots, including nine Cassidy stops.
 
After the teams traded goals for the first 17 minutes, Manhattanville scored four times in the span of 6:50 to open up a 6-3 lead with 5:58 to go in the first half. Nance started the rally with her first collegiate goal, followed by tallies from sophomore Katie Zambrotta (North Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) and junior Sarah Dalsey (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) and Weiss' second of the game.
 
But the visitors responded with four straight goals of their own, scoring twice in the final 5:20 of the first half to get back within one and then getting the first two goals of the second frame to take a 7-6 lead 1:48 into the stanza.
 
NEC still held a one-goal lead at 8-7 before the tide turned swiftly in the favor of Manhattanville, with the Valiants scoring three times in less than a minute to take back the lead for good. Nance evened the score from the eight-meter arc with 24:07 left, and Weiss followed 41 seconds later before Reilly completed the run with another score 15 seconds after that.
 
Weiss scored again less than two minutes later to make it an 11-8 game, and then it was Cassidy's turn to come up huge, making five saves in less than five minutes – including a perfect 4-of-4 on free-position shots – to keep her team ahead. With that momentum, another Reilly goal and one more from Weiss completed the team's 6-0 run and put Manhattanville up 13-8 with 10:22 on the clock.
 
The Valiants were content to trade goals over the final 8:09 of the game, with sophomore Christina Leva (Hawthorne, N.Y./Westlake) getting into the scoring action with 2:16 left and Weiss putting the final touch on the score with her sixth goal in the final 30 seconds.
 
Manhattanville will continue its three-game homestand on Wednesday, when the Valiants host SUNY Old Westbury at GoValiants.com Field beginning at 3 p.m.