PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville University women's lacrosse team wrapped up the 2024 season on Saturday afternoon, falling in a 14-7 decision to the United States Merchant Marine Academy on GoValiants.com Field. The Valiants finish the year 5-11 overall and 2-6 in the Skyline Conference.
Making the first start of her collegiate career on the lacrosse field, Paz Hassan-Contreras (Lansing, Mich./Okemos) did everything she could to keep the Valiants close against the top team in the Skyline Conference. The freshman goaltender made a season-high 16 saves as she played all 60 minutes in the cage.
Colleen MacNeil (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) capped off her incredible senior season by notching the 100th goal of her career to open up the scoring in Saturday's affair, finding the back of the net 2:53 into the game. A back-and-forth first quarter played out with neither team building a lead of more than one goal through the opening 15 minutes. The Mariners fired home the next two tallies by way of Grace Picozzi and Lauren Jablonowski before Pietra Cabral (Mineola, N.Y./Mineola) fired the equalizer for Manhattanville with a player advantage with 8:31 left in the opening quarter. Katherine Stahl (Middletown, R.I./Middletown) put the Valiants back in front a minute and a half later off a MacNeil assist, but the final two goals of the quarter belonged to USMMA with tallies from Gianna Russo and Emma Barnes putting the visiting team up 4-3 at the end of the first.
Gianna Mott (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Sachem North) scored 19 seconds into the second as the Valiants once again found themselves with the numbers advantage following a USMMA yellow card. The graduate's 23rd goal of the year was assisted by Meghan DeBellis (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield) to tie the game up at four. However, it was all Mariners the rest of the way as USMMA scored four straight goals to close out the half with an 8-4 lead that they never relinquished.
Manhattanville started off the third quarter on the right foot, scoring twice across the first seven and a half minutes. Stahl found the back of the netting for the second time on the day off MacNeil's assist before the sophomore set up DeBellis with 7:42 left in the quarter. USMMA responded with three straight goals to go up by five before MacNeil closed out the frame with her second of the game and 48th of the season to move the score to 11-7. Merchant Marine scored all three goals of the fourth quarter to secure the 14-7 win, capping off a perfect 8-0 regular season against the Skyline Conference.
In her final game as a Valiant, MacNeil did what she had done all season long by leading Manhattanville in every defensive category. The senior finished with six ground balls, three caused turnovers and seven draw controls. Mott and Stahl each added three caused turnovers, with Stahl also winning four draw controls.
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