PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Valiants are heading to the Skyline Conference semifinals! The fourth-seeded Manhattanville College women's lacrosse team defended their home turf on Tuesday night, defeating No. 5 Saint Joseph's (Long Island) by a final of 16-9. With the win, the Valiants advance to a conference tournament semifinal game for the first time since 2017 when Manhattanville advanced to the MAC Freedom semifinal round.
It was a much different tale on Tuesday night than the previous meeting between the two programs last week. While the Valiants needed some late game heroics to complete a six goal comeback in the regular season matchup, Manhattanville scored first in this one and never looked back. The Valiants led by as many as nine goals and had a disruptive defensive effort to keep the Golden Eagles off-balance all night long.
Lara Keenan (Montgomery, N.Y./Valley Central) and
Kerry Carr (New Hartford, N.Y./Millbrook School) led the attack, combining for 11 total points on nine goals and a pair of assists. Keenan, the team's leading goal scorer on the year, scored five times to bring her season total to 37. Keenan now sits at 130 goals for career, moving into 10
th all-time in program history. Carr, meanwhile, scored four times and had an assist to claim the lead in points with 43 on the season.
After giving up 13 goals in last week's contest against the Golden Eagles, the Valiants were extremely successful in preventing the Saint Joseph's attack from getting open looks on net. Manhattanville swarmed ball carriers all night long, holding the Golden Eagles' leading scorer Melissa Newman to three goals after she was able to net six in the inaugural matchup. Saint Joseph's was held to just one goal in both the first and third quarters.
It took four minutes to get the game-opening goal, but it would be Keenan firing the opening salvo to get the Valiants on the board. A touch over a minute later, Keenan struck again off
Marisa D'Angelo's (Wantagh, N.Y./MacArthur) assist to give the Valiants a 2-0 lead. Newman halved the lead with 4:53 to go, but Carr and D'Angelo scored back-to-back goals separated by 26 seconds to give the home squad a 4-1 lead through the opening 15 minutes.
The Valiants continued to attack with the first three goals of the second quarter. Killing off a yellow card, Keenan scored her third of the night shorthanded before D'Angelo earned a hat trick of her own with a pair of goals assisted by Carr and Keenan, putting the Valiants up 7-1 with 11:16 left in the half. The Golden Eagles prevented the Valiants from running away with a string of three goals, two by Emily O'Mara and the third by Newman, making it a 7-4 contest. However,
Ally Petricca (New Hyde Park, N.Y./New Hyde Park Memorial) and
Maura Kelly (Stratford, Conn./Bunnell) closed out the half with a pair of goals to give the Valiants a five goal advantaged at 9-4.
Carr got the second half started with her second of the night a minute and a half after the opening draw. After Keenan notched her fourth of the contest, Carr became the third Valiant with three tallies in the game with an unassisted tally with 9:50 to go. The Golden Eagles got one back on O'Mara's third of the game, but Kelly notched the final goal of the quarter with the man advantage to put the Valiants up 14-5 entering the final period of play.
Keenan would score unassisted and Caity Bianci would finish a feed from
Brialee Logue (Hampton, N.H./Winnacunnet) to account for Manhattanville's two goals of the period. While the Golden Eagles were able to have their best offensive period of the night with four goals, it was too little, too late as the Valiants closed out the game.
With strong defensive play in front of her, Manhattanville goalkeeper
Britney Sirota (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) was not tested often, but still made nine saves to secure the victory. Sirota also collected four ground balls, tying with Petricca for the team-lead on the night.
Kasey Molito (Whitman, MA/Whitman-Hanson Regional) added three of her own while causing a turnover. Keenan and Carr led the caused turnover effort in addition to their offensive displays with three apiece.
Up Next
The Valiants advance to the Skyline Semifinals and will take on top-seeded Merchant Marine at 7 p.m. at King's Point.
