FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Colleen MacNeil (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) surpassed 150 points for her career while Meghan DeBellis (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield) scored five times as the Manhattanville University women's lacrosse team was defeated at Farmingdale on Wednesday night, 18-11. The Valiants fall to 5-10 on the season and 2-5 in the Skyline with the loss.

A defensive-dominated opening quarter saw the Rams take a 3-1 lead through the opening 15 minutes. Farmingdale received a pair of goals from Ashley Codispoti and the first of what would be a seven-goal outing by Carly Livingston to build up their first quarter advantage. The Valiants' lone tally of the first came from MacNeil, who found the netting for the 45^th time on the season at the 11:42 mark.

Offense took over in the second as the teams totaled 12 goals before the halftime horn. Olivia Cassese got the barrage started 1:57 into the quarter to spot the Rams a three-goal advantage. DeBellis began her career-high scoring output 39 seconds later off an assist from MacNeil. Livingston and Katherine Stahl (Middletown, R.I./Middletown) traded goals before the Rams began to pull away on the back of three-straight tallies recorded by Jordyn Neu, Livingston and Molly Espey. DeBellis responded with the next two tallies, with the goals assisted by MacNeill and Gianna Mott (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Sachem North) coming 32 seconds apart to cut Manhattanville's deficit down to 8-5. Farmingdale closed out the half strong with three more goals in the final 4:20 to go up by six.

Codispoti and Livingston carried Farmingdale's scoring run into the second half as the Rams pulled out to a 13-5 lead seven minutes into the third quarter. DeBellis snapped the Rams' five-goal streak with her fourth and fifth tallies of the night, but Emily Sohm notched one last goal before quarters' end to send the game into the fourth with Farmingdale up 14-7.

Each time scored four times to end the night, with the Valiants getting a pair of goals from Pietra Cabral (Mineola, N.Y./Mineola) and one each from Mott and MacNeil. The Rams were able to match Manhattanville stride-for-stride to close out the seven-goal win.

Jacee Russello (Hope Valley, R.I./North Kingstown Senior) made the start in net for Manhattanville, making two saves in her 27:06 in the cage while allowing ten goals. She was spelled by Paz Hassan-Contreras (Lansing, Mich./Okemos), who made a season-high nine stops in her 32:54 of game action, surrendering eight goals.

MacNeil's two-way play continued to lead the Valiants as the senior finished with team-highs of nine ground balls, three caused turnovers and 11 draw controls. Stahl added five grounders and five draw controls, while Catrina Chinetti (Hyde Park, Mass./Boston Latin Academy) scooped up three ground balls. Mott forced a paid of Ram takeaways while adding three draw controls of her own.

Up Next
The Valiants conclude the 2024 season on Saturday at noon, hosting Merchant Marine.

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