RYE, N.Y. – Despite a 46-33 advantage in shots on goal and a dominant 66.7 percent faceoff win rate, the Manhattanville College women's hockey team fell 6-3 to the William Smith College Herons Sunday, Jan. 20, in United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) play from Playland Ice Casino.

Abbey Luth had a hat trick and added an assist for William Smith (13-4, 11-1 UCHC), who put four on the board in the second period. Junior Amanda Sabia (Freehold, N.J./The Gunnery) had two goals and an assist for Manhattanville (11-6-2, 7-4-1 UCHC) and sophomore Tianna Lopes (West Vancouver, British Columbia/Pacific Steelers (JWHL)) assisted on all three Valiants goals. Senior goalie Rose Pijaca (Worcester, Mass./Worcester Academy) made 27 saves for Manhattanville and Olivia Williams made 43 saves for William Smith.

Luth scored on the game's first shot just 59 seconds in, which held up as the lone goal of the opening period, despite a 14-7 shot advantage for Manhattanville. The Valiants managed to kill off a two-minute 5-on-3 William Smith power play near the end of the period, with Pijaca making five saves and junior Ali Howard (Rye, N.Y./Rye) blocking two shots over those two minutes. Junior Janet Xu (Edmonton, Alta./Ontario Hockey Academy) even had a breakaway opportunity doing the 3-on-5, but was denied by Williams.

After going on a power play of their own just shy of the five-minute mark of the second period, Xu tied the game at 6:20 off assists from Lopes and Sabia. The game didn't stay tied for long as Luth scored her second of the day 1:46 later. Gina Scibetta added a power play goal of her own at the 13:30 mark.

Sabia made it 3-2 off Lopes' second assist of the game at 16:59, but Luth completed her hat trick just 19 seconds later, then assisted on a power play goal by Jules Kennedy at 18:10.
Still down three more than midway through the third period, the Valiants pulled Pijaca for an extra skater while already on a power play, leading to Sabia's second of the day at 12:49. The Valiants pulled Pijaca again with 90 seconds to go, but Emily Martino added an empty netter at 18:54 for the game's final goal.

Manhattanville missed an opportunity to leapfrog the Nazareth College Golden Flyers for fourth place in the UCHC. The Valiants long homestand continues in two weeks time when the Neumann College Knights come to Playland for a UCHC series, starting Saturday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m.