RYE, N.Y. ­– Junior Sarah Sinning (Southold, N.Y./National Sports Academy) recorded her first career-hat trick and sophomore Nicole Mensi (Mamaroneck, N.Y./SUNY Plattsburgh) added three assists on the night as the Manhattanville College women's hockey team locked up the number two seed for the New England Hockey Conference postseason tournament by defeating Salve Regina 5-3 on Senior Night inside Playland Ice Casino.
 
Sinning scored the first, fourth and fifth goal for Manhattanville Friday evening, including her second game-winning goal of the season. Junior Karly Kapur (Sparta, N.J./N.J. Colonials) and freshman Amanda Sabia (Freehold, N.J./The Gunnery) added the final two goals for the Valiants, and junior Maeve O'Brien (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) and sophomore Kat Reilly (Holbrook, N.Y./Boston Shamrocks (JWHL)) added two assists to go along with Mensi's three assists. Senior Lindsay Diot (Bethel, Conn./Boston Shamrocks) added an assist and Sabia picked up one as well for two points on the night. Between the pipes, senior Olivia Drew (York, Maine/Portland Jr. Pirates) earned her fifth win of the season with 23 saves. The Seahawks' Jennifer O'Connell stopped 44 shots on the night.
 
Despite firing 13 shots on goal in the first period, the Valiants were held scoreless thanks to a perfect period between the pipes for O'Connell. Drew matched her counterpart by stopping six shots to take a scoreless tie into the locker room for the first intermission.
 
In the middle period, it was all Valiants however, as Manhattanville struck three times on 25 shots on goal. Sinning got the scoring started when she took a beautiful threaded pass through the Seahawk defense and beat O'Connell inside the left post for her eighth goal of the season. Mensi once again found a teammate with a pass that threaded the needle across the slot and Kapur buried in past O'Connell for her eighth of the season as well to make it 2-1 after Salve Regina tied the score. Mensi capped off her big second period by finding Sabia with 23 seconds remaining in the period for the freshman's fifth goal in her past seven games and the Valiants took a 3-1 lead into the final intermission.
 
The Seahawks came out firing to begin the final stanza, making it 3-2 with a goal 18 seconds into the period. The visitors tied the score 3-3 midway through the period, causing head coach David Turco to take his timeout after the score was leveled and the crimson and black responded immediately out of the timeout. Just 33 seconds later Sinning took a pass from Sabia on a 2-on-1 rush and used a great deke move to beat O'Connell for her second tally of the night. The junior capped off the hat trick when she deflected a point blast from O'Brien that traveled over the shoulder of the sophomore netminder for her first career three goal output and helped Manhattanville capture the second seed for the NEHC tournament.
 
The Valiants will travel north to Massachusetts tomorrow when they take on UMass-Boston in the final regular season game of the year. With the two-seed clinched, the Valiants will await the results of tomorrow's games to determine their opponent next weekend in the quarterfinal round inside Playland Ice Casino. As the standings stand, Manhattanville will take on either Plymouth State, Salve Regina, or Southern Maine in the quarterfinal round.