GENEVA, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College field hockey put up a valiant offensive fight, playing from behind almost the entire game, but fell to Saint Lawrence University at the William Smith Classic Sunday morning, 5-3.

Less than two minutes in, the Saints' Melissa Grosshans scored off a deflected ball, knocking one home past Manhattanville (1-6) senior goalkeeper Kaitlin Halloran (Nesconset, N.Y./Smithtown East).

Manhattanville sophomore Robin Boot (Bedum, Netherlands/H.N. Werkman College), after a quiet game Saturday without a shot attempt against hosting William Smith, announced her presence early on Sunday, first with a shot less than seven minutes in that missed just wide, then with a beautiful individual effort 13 minutes in, dribbling from the center of the field to the far post and backhanding the tying goal past Saint Lawrence (3-3) goalie Sophie Cardenali.

A day after recording a career-high 20 saves, Halloran was busy again in the opening half Sunday, recording seven saves in the first 27 minutes. Her eighth save of a Lucy Stillman shot popped up into the air for Bailey Sherwin, who batted the deflection into the net for a 2-1 Saints lead. Halloran finished the game with 10 saves.

Manhattanville junior Emily Antinozzi (Rye, N.Y./Rye) used her speed to set up the Valiants' second goal of the day. The Western New England University transfer carried the ball up along the right side past the Saints defense, and fired a centering pass to senior Lisa Maxwell (Wassenaar, Netherlands/Maerlant Lyceum). Maxwell's ensuing shot resulted in a loose ball that sophomore Ameerah Thomas (Norfolk, Va./Granby) knocked home off the rebound for her second goal of the season.

Two miscues from Manhattanville's defense following Thomas' goal led to a pair of Saint Lawrence goals before the end of the half. First, Halloran was late getting to a loose ball in front of the cage that Tori Shaffer knocked home for a 3-2 Saints lead. Then, less than 15 seconds before the end of the half, Camille Burger stole the ball from Manhattanville senior Haley Linkroum (Deposit, N.Y./Deposit) just outside the circle, navigated around a fast-closing Halloran, and scored with six seconds left for a 4-2 lead at the half.

The second half was a relatively quiet one for both sides until a counter attack by Lisa Maxwell (Wassenaar, Netherlands/Maerlant Lyceum) at the 55-minute mark led to a great look that Cardenali came out of the cage to stop, but Antinozzi, backing up the play, grabbed the loose ball, found space around Cardenali, and buried one in the cage for her third goal of the season, trimming Manhattanville's deficit to one. Burger's second goal of the game, a blast from just inside the top of the cage with 90 seconds to play, pushed the lead back to two to seal the win for the Saints.

The Valiants will hit the road Friday night for their MAC Freedom opener, a 7:30 game at King's (Pa.), before returning home Wednesday, September 27 for a 4:00 p.m. non-conference affair against Ramapo.