PURCHASE, N.Y. -- Led by a career-high six-point effort by Ashley Hayes (Springfield, Ore./Thurston), the Manhattanville College women's soccer team celebrated Senior Day with an 8-1 victory over visiting Purchase College on Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Valiants improved to 9-3-2 overall and 7-1-1 in conference play with one game remaining on the regular season schedule. 

It was an appropriate display by Hayes on the day where her and seven other senior Valiants were honored prior to kickoff. The two goal, two assist performance brought Hayes' season point total to 26, trailing only Natalie Aracena (Bronx, N.Y./Riverdale Kingsbride Academy) for the team lead. 

Manhattanville used five goal scorers in the game to fend off the Panthers, outshooting Purchase 46-2 on the afternoon. Kelly Barrera (Port Chester, NY/Port Chester High School) joined Hayes with a two score afternoon, while Jennifer Xiong (Connelly Springs, N.C./East Burke), Veronica Lage (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Lakeland), and Jessica Wielgus (New York City, NY/Frank McCourt High School) each had a goal in the win. 

Barrera fired the opening salvo 11 minutes into the contest to put the Valiants on the board. Nine minutes later, Xiong collected a rebound off a Brigid Sullivan (Vienna, Va./Paul VI Catholic) shot to fire one past the Panthers' Haley Cascio to give the Crimson and White a two-goal advantage heading into the half. 

It took just 30 seconds after the break for Hayes to score her first of the afternoon, finishing off a feed from Barrera. Ten minutes later, Hayes would strike again, this time being set up by a Skyla Marrone (East Northport, N.Y./St. Anthony's) pass. Purchase would get on the board in the 57th minute, as Kristen Purcell was able to fire a free kick opportunity just over the outstretched hand of Steph Shalhoub (Yorktown, N.Y./Lakeland) to cut the Manhattanville lead to 4-1.  

After a 16-minute scoring drought, Lage scored her fifth of the season via Hayes' first assist of the day in the 73rd minute. Ninety seconds later, Hayes got involved in the scoring once again, albeit not in the intended fashion. The senior fired a centering attempt in front of the Purchase net that was inadvertently knocked in by a Panthers defender. Hayes would go on to get back onto the scoresheet in the 77th minute, getting the assist on Barrera's second of the day. Wielgus would end the scoring with seven and a half minutes left on the clock via a Megan Leser (Ossining, N.Y./Ossining) assist. 

The senior goalkeeping tandem on Alex Pyatsky and Shalhoub split duties in net, playing a half each. Pyatsky did not face a shot in her 45 minutes of action, while the only blemish on Shalhoub's line was the Purchase free kick goal. 

Up Next 

Manhattanville closes out the regular season on Wednesday evening, hosting St. Joseph's-Long Island for a 4 p.m. matchup. 

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