GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Manhattanville College women's lacrosse team completed a fourth quarter comeback on Saturday afternoon to earn a 10-7 win over Guilford. The Valiants improve to 2-0 overall to begin the year following the victory.

Trailing the entire game following the initial Guilford goal, the Valiants scored four unanswered tallies in the fourth quarter to take their first lead and secure the win.
Rookie Kaci Pierce (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) played a pivotal role in the contest for Manhattanville as she led the attack with four goals. Logging her first career hat trick, Pierce now has six goals across the opening two games of the season to lead the Valiants.

In addition to Pierce's four goal game, the Valiants enjoyed four point games from Pietra Cabral (Mineola, N.Y./Mineola) and Kerry Carr (New Hartford, N.Y./Millbrook School). Cabral scored twice and dished out a pair of assists, while Carr scored once and collected three helpers to move her point total to a team-high nine.

The Quakers opened up the contest with three straight goals, putting the Valiants in a 3-0 hole with 4:05 left in the opening quarter. Sydne Sawyer and Mackenzie Richards both scored woman-down goals before Caitlyn Fisher put the home squad up by three. Manhattanville got into the contest with a pair of goals over the final 2:35 of the quarter. Marisa D'Angelo (Wantagh, N.Y./MacArthur) scored her fifth of the year off Carr's first assist of the game before Carr got herself into the goal column with a free position goal to pull Manhattanville back within one entering the second quarter.

The teams traded a pair of goals each as the first half drew to a close. Sawyer reestablished Guilford's multigoal lead with 11:18 to play before Pierce netted her first of the contest off an assist from Ally Petricca (New Hyde Park, N.Y./New Hyde Park Memorial) a minute later. The score held at 4-3 for more than six minutes before Maggie Bryson scored for the Quakers with 3:33 to go in the half. It would be Pierce responding once again, this time 35 seconds following the Guilford goal, as the rookie took a feed from Cabral and found the back of the net with an extra attacker to keep the Valiants within one entering halftime, down 5-4.

Guilford opened up the second half on the offensive, scoring goals from Sawyer and Richards to pull ahead 7-4 five minutes into the third. Pierce would once again be the player to fire the response for Manhattanville, scoring from Cabral with 9:01 left in the third to record the hat trick. Cabral would get back into the scoring with 7:57 to go off a Carr assist to once again pull the Valiants back within one entering the final 15 minutes of play.

After scoring the final two goals of the third, the Valiants closed out the contest on a 6-0 scoring run as they accounted for all four tallies in the final quarter. Maura Kelly (Stratford, Conn./Bunnell) scored the equalizer 22 seconds in to the period before Cabral scored a woman-up goal from Kelly with 13:30 to play to give the Valiants their first lead of the contest. Manhattanville would add two more extra player goals, an unassisted tally from Pierce and a Kelly goal on Carr's third assist of the day to add some insurance. The defense stood tall to hold the Quakers scoreless over the final 25 minutes to play to secure the comeback win.

Britney Sirota (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) finished with nine total saves in the game as the Manhattanville netminder. Through two games, the senior goalie sports a 6.50 goals-against average to open up the season.

The Valiants earned 35 ground balls compared to the 19 by Guilford. Leading the effort for Manhattanville was Petricca with seven ground balls, tying her career-high. Cabral, Carr and Brysha Schmidt (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./The Millbrook School) would each collect five grounders. Petricca also led the way with four caused turnovers.

Schmidt and Abbey Playle (Reading, England/Leigh High School) each earned three draw controls for the Valiants.

Up Next
The Valiants will carry their perfect record back home next week as they are scheduled to play their home opener on Wednesday. Manhattanville hosts Ramapo on GoValiants.com Field at 5 p.m.

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