GENEVA, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College field hockey team fought hard, but came up short against eighteenth-ranked William Smith College Saturday in the opening round of the William Smith Classic, 5-0.
Senior goalkeeper
Kaitlin Halloran (Nesconset, N.Y./Smithtown East) established a new career-high by making 20 saves in the game. Senior
Haley Linkroum (Deposit, N.Y./Deposit) and freshman
Isela Casillas (Child Vista, Calif./Eastlake) added a defensive save apiece as well.
The Valiants (1-5) held the powerful Herons (5-1) scoreless for 19 minutes, thanks to six Halloran saves, but Halloran's seventh stop rebounded to Hannah Wood, who buried her 10th goal of the season. Halloran made five more first-half saves, sandwiched around William Smith midfielder Alexandra Frary's second goal of the season for a 2-0 halftime score.
Manhattanville's defense held off a lightning-fast start by William Smith in the second half, as the Herons totaled six penalty corners and six shots in the first 10 minutes, but two Halloran stops, two blocked shots, and Linkroum's defensive save kept the deficit at two. The Herons attack eventually broke through for their third goal, when Adair Fallon found space on the left side and knocked home Maura Moran's pass from the top of the circle.
The Herons controlled possession the majority of the game, holding Manhattanville to just three shots, the first time this season the Valiants recorded fewer than seven shots in a game.
William Smith tallied two more scores the rest of the way, one from Elizabeth Carlson and one from Kate Battaglia, but not before Halloran reached 20, breaking her 17-save mark set against Eastern on October 25, 2014. Halloran's effort was the highest single-game total for a Manhattanville goalkeeper since a 25-save effort from
Meghan Hughes against The College of New Jersey, then the eleventh-ranked team in the country, on September 2, 2014.
Manhattanville will now face Saint Lawrence tomorrow morning at 11:00 am in their final game at the 19
th installment of the tournament that dates back to 1997. The Valiants will return home to GoValiants.com Field on Wednesday, September 27 for a 4:00 p.m. showdown with Ramapo.
