REISTERSTOWN, Md. – The Manhattanville College women's hockey team began their final road series of the regular season on Friday night, defeating Stevenson by a final of 5-1. The victory pushes the Valiants back over .500 on the year with an 11-10-1 overall record, while the team now sports an 11-5-1 UCHC mark to maintain their grasp on the No. 3 seed with three games remaining.

It was a lightning-fast start for the Valiants out of the gate as Manhattanville scored on their first shot of the night 49 seconds after the opening faceoff. Catrina Chinetti (Hyde Park, Mass./Boston Latin Academy) scored the fourth goal of her rookie campaign, finishing a feed from Holly Meredith (Saratoga Springs, N.Y./Vermont Academy) who would pick up her fifth assist of the season on the play.

Despite the quick start, it would take almost 16 minutes before the Valiants would extend their lead. Gabrielle Cox (Niverville, NY/Ichabod Crane High School) would convert on the power play courtesy of Meredith's second assist of the night. The score was Cox's eighth on the power play as she continues to lead the UCHC in goals with the extra skater. The Mustangs would get one back 28 seconds later from Tea Ferrara, sending the game into the second with the Valiants nursing a 2-1 lead.

It would be Cox striking again with her UCHC-leading 23^rd goal of the season as she continues to prove herself as one of the league's top offensive threats. Her second of the night would be unassisted, coming 6:58 into the period to reestablish the two goal lead for Manhattanville. The lead would climb to up to 5-1 by period's end. At the 11:42 mark, Brysha Schmidt (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./The Millbrook School) scored her fifth of the season from Morgan Miller (St. Augustine, Fla./Gilmour Academy) and Laney Nash (Edmonds, Wash./Edmonds-Woodway).  The Valiants would add another insurance tally at 14:27 as Meg Stacy (Bethany, Conn./The Gunnery) recorded her first collegiate goal. The junior was set up by Kerry Carr (New Hartford, N.Y./Millbrook School) and Miller to head into the third period with the Valiants up by four. In all, the Valiants' 23 pucks on net in the second period alone outshot the Mustangs' entire attack effort across the whole game.

It would be a scoreless third period for both teams as the Valiants closed out the win. Franny Gerardi (Yonkers, N.Y./Selects Academy) successfully stopped all six shots she saw over the final 20 minutes, ending the game with 18 total saves. The senior goaltender collects her seventh win of the year in the crease as she now has 529 saves on the season as she now holds both of the top two single-save marks in program history.

Despite not finding the back of the net, Miller would fire a team-high seven shots on goal as part of the Valiants' 43 shot barrage. Cox finished with six, while Chinetti threw five pucks toward the Stevenson net.

The Valiants held a narrow 27-24 faceoff margin on the night. It would be Miller leading the effort in that category as well, as the senior won 16 of her draws.

Manhattanville finished 1-of-5 on the power play on the night. The Valiant penalty kill was successful on all three Stevenson extra skater opportunities.

Up Next
It will be the regular season road finale for the Valiants tomorrow as the teams run it back for a 4:30 p.m. puck drop on Saturday.

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