PURCHASE, N.Y. – Senior Jenna Nance (Glendale, Calif./Glendale) led all scorers with six goals and freshman Melissa O'Mara (Huntington, N.Y./St. Anthony's) broke the school single-season draw control record as the Manhattanville College women's lacrosse team fought off a tough DeSales University squad to pick up a key 16-13 MAC Freedom victory on Wednesday afternoon at a rainy GoValiants.com Field.
 
The win was a big one for Manhattanville (8-7, 3-3 MAC Freedom), which remains alive for a conference tournament berth with the victory. The Valiants are currently tied for fourth place in the MAC Freedom with King's (Pa.) College and will need to beat Delaware Valley University and have Eastern University beat King's on Saturday in order to secure a postseason berth.
 
Nance scored six times with an assist for a game-high seven points, surpassing 50 goals for the year to become, along with O'Mara and fellow senior Carly Weiss (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac), the first trio of teammates in school history to all reach the 50-goal plateau in the same season. O'Mara scored five times and also controlled a game-high 10 draws, in the process breaking the school single-season record set in 2013 by Casandra Honovich '14.
 
Manhattanville started slowly on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, with the Bulldogs scoring four of the first five goals to take an early lead. The Valiants got back to even thanks to a Weiss score sandwiched between a pair of O'Mara tallies, but the teams alternated goals for the remainder of the half and the home team went into the break down by a 7-6 score.
 
The halftime break seemed to do wonders for the Valiants, however, as the team came out and scored the first four goals of the second stanza to take the lead for the first time. Nance and freshman Bella Cosentino (Washingtonville, N.Y./Washingtonville) scored 37 seconds apart to give Manhattanville its first lead of the game, followed by tallies from O'Mara and Nance to make the score 10-7 just 5:50 into the frame.
 
The Valiants built up a four-goal lead on four different occasions the rest of the way, as sophomore Bella Marchiselli (Williston Park, N.Y./Our Lady of Mercy Academy) came up with several key saves down the stretch to secure the win. Marchiselli made seven of her 11 saves in the second half, including stopping all three DSU free-position attempts.
 
Manhattanville finished with a slight 34-30 edge in shots, while also posting a 19-12 edge in draw controls.
 
The Valiants will look to secure a postseason spot on Saturday, when the Valiants host Delaware Valley and honor their graduating seniors with Senior Day beginning at 1 p.m. at GoValiants.com Field.