PURCHASE, N.Y. – Meeting for the first time since last season's Skyline Conference semifinals, the Manhattanville College women's soccer team battled to a 1-1 draw with Mount Saint Mary on Saturday afternoon. The draw will move Manhattanville's overall record on the year to 2-5-1 with a 2-0-1 mark in Skyline play.

Scoreless through the first half, it was Jennifer Xiong (Connelly Springs, N.C./East Burke) that would provide the offensive spark for the Valiants in the 65^th minute. Coming off her two goal performance earlier in the week against Old Wesbury, the senior was able to collect a pass from Skyla Marrone (East Northport, N.Y./St. Anthony's) and fire a quick shot to the left side of the net past Christina Kakavas in the Knights' net. Xiong has now scored five goals over Manhattanville's last three games to jump atop the team leaderboard. For Marrone, the assist was her second of the season.

While it looked as though the Valiants would be able to hold the 1-0 lead the rest of the way, the Knights were able to ultimately get on the board in the 80^th minute. Kaitlin Hansen scored on a ball assisted by Darla Petricca with just under 10 minutes left in the contest, knotting the score up at 1-1 where it held the remainder of the way.

Macey Girard (Branford, Conn./Branford) was once again solid in net for the Valiants, allowing just the one goal while making seven saves.

Mount Saint Mary held a 20-11 shots advantage, while also putting more shots on goal than the Valiants, 8-6. Alessia Cioffi (Pawling, N.Y./Pawling) and Natalie Aracena (Bronx, N.Y./Riverdale Kingsbride Academy) each put two shots on target, while Cioffi led the entire Valiants offense with four total shots.

The Knights also won the corner kick battle, 7-4.

Up Next
Conference play rolls on when the Valiants return to action on Wednesday. Manhattanville hosts USMMA on GoValiants.com Field at 6 p.m.