ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College women's hockey team went toe-to-toe with seventh-ranked Nazareth on Friday night, but a Golden Flyers goal in the closing seconds of regulation upended the Valiants by a final of 3-2. With the loss, Manhattanville drops to 10-6-1 on the season and 10-3-0 in the UCHC.

Not backing down from the challenge facing the top team in the conference poses, the Valiants came out hot, scoring just 80 seconds into the contest. Taylor Ham (Saugerties, N.Y./Millbrook School) connected with her fifth goal of the season, an unassisted tally to put the Valiants on the board first. It took Nazareth nine and a half minutes to mount a response, but Makenna Wiljanen was able to capitalize with some open ice on a power play opportunity to tie the game back at 1-1.

The score would hold there until the third period, where power play goals continued to tell the story. The Golden Flyers converted once again 67 seconds into the period with the skater advantage as Emma Hayes was able to put the home team on top for the first time in the night. After going 0-for-3 on power plays of their own to begin the night, the Valiants were finally able to convert with the extra skater, as Grace Felicio (Holden, Mass./Wachusett Regional) finished a set up from Laney Nash (Edmonds, Wash./Washington Wild (PNAHA)) to score her third of the year and even up the score once again.

The game seemed headed to overtime, but with just 27 seconds left to play, Madison Nichols came up huge for the Golden Flyers, firing a shot in past Franny Gerardi (Yonkers, N.Y./Selects Academy) to secure the win for Nazareth and keep the home team undefeated in conference play.

Gerardi made 40 saves in the contest, including 15 in her scoreless second period. The Valiants were only able to fire 10 shots on net in the contest, their third-lowest total in a game this season. Nazareth dominated the faceoff battles, winning 32 draws to the Valiants' 18. Morgan Miller (St. Augustine, Fla./Gilmour Academy) led Manhattanville with 10 wins on the draw.

Up Next
The Valiants get another shot at upending the Golden Flyers tomorrow in a 1 p.m. matchup.

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