EWING, N.J. – Sophomore Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) tossed her second shutout of the day to earn Regional Championship Most Valuable Player honors as NFCA #19 and second-seeded Manhattanville College captured the first regional championship in program history with a 1-0 victory over top-seeded The College of New Jersey in the championship game of the Ewing, New Jersey, Regional of the NCAA Division III Softball Championships at TCNJ's Dr. June Walker Field on Saturday.
 
With the win, Manhattanville (41-3) advances to the NCAA Div. III Championship Super Regionals for the first time, which will be held at eight campus sites on May 20-21. The Valiants will travel north to Rochester, N.Y., to take on Saint John Fisher College next weekend; a full schedule and preview will be available on GoValiants.com in the coming days.
 
After tossing a seven-hit shutout earlier in the day to get Manhattanville to the if-necessary game, the sophomore was even more dominant in the title game. Feeney (25-3) allowed just four singles and held TCNJ (30-16) hitless on six attempts with runners in scoring position, finishing the game with three strikeouts while adding to her own program standard with her 12th shutout of the year. She finished the weekend 4-1 with a 0.76 ERA and just three earned runs and 15 hits allowed in 27.2 innings.
 
She was joined on the All-Tournament team by sophomore Laurel Coito (San Diego, Calif./Cathedral Catholic) and freshmen Desiree Buboi (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran) and Sophia Chapelone (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon). Chapelone led the Valiants by hitting .467 (7 of 15) for the weekend with six runs scored and six runs batted in, while Buboi hit .353 (6 of 17) with two homers, two doubles and nine RBIs over five games. Coito, meanwhile, posted a .611 on-base percentage by drawing six walks and four hit-by-pitches in addition to scoring four times.
 
As they have in every game this weekend, the Valiants struck first in the bottom of the first inning playing as the home team. Chapelone led off the frame with a single and moved to second on a walk to junior Alicia Marino (Mahopac, N.Y./Pleasantville). Marino then beat the throw to second on an infield grounder from freshman Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) to keep the inning alive, which led to Chapelone streaking home on a wild pitch during the next at-bat.
 
Amazingly, that was all the offense that Feeney needed to shut down the Lions, recording seven fly outs and 10 ground outs. The Valiants played stellar defense all game long to protect their pitcher, including two very nice running catches by Coito and junior Brittany Deieso (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) on the track in the third and a great diving catch in foul ground by junior Dolores Diemicke (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) in the fifth.
 
TCNJ's biggest threat came in the sixth after the first two batters reached, but Feeney came up with a big strikeout and freshman Evonne Torres (Hacienda Heights, Calif./Pioneer) threw out the runner at second for a huge double play. Feeney needed only six pitches to close things out in the seventh, getting a fly out to Coito in left to set off the celebration.