PURCHASE, N.Y. - The Manhattanville University woman's lacrosse team collected their first home victory of the season against SUNY Polytechnic Institute on Saturday afternoon. The Valiants clinched an 18-7 victory over the Wildcats to bring their overall record to 2-2 before Skyline Conference action begins next week.
In the Valiants' overpowering performance, junior Pietra Cabral (Mineola, N.Y./Mineola) now finds herself sitting in the 100-point club. Scoring two goals in today's contest pushed Cabral's career total up to the century mark with 68 goals and 32 assists in 36 career games.
Manhattanville had a slow start scoring only four goals in the first quarter compared to SUNY Poly's two. Brinley Ronan snagged the first goal of the contest with a free position opportunity before Cabral netted the first goal for the Valiants about two minutes later. Jocelyn Mazo (Mamaroneck, N.Y./Mamaroneck) and Kathleen O'Mara (Huntington, N.Y./Walt Whitman) bagged one goal each less than 20 seconds apart with 10:01 remaining in the first quarter. Kaci Pierce (Niantic, Conn./East Lyme) started her five-goal game late in the first stanza with the fourth goal of the game for Manhattanville with 6:43 remaining. One more goal for the Wildcats closed out the first stanza, 4-2.
The Valiants opened the second quarter with a three-goal run distancing the score to 8-3. Pierce sank two of the three goals while Sydney Natale (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) netted her first of the contest at the 8:13 mark. Two more goals from SUNY Poly would get the score margin within three, the closest they would see for the rest of the game. Ashley Glass (Mahopac, N.Y./Lakeland) closed out the first half making the score 9-5. The remaining three and a half minutes endured scoreless.
The Valiants thrived in the third quarter not letting a single goal past freshman goaltender Megan McDonald (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River). Manhattanville added five goals to their score stretching the differential to 14-5 at the end of the third stanza. Pierce added two more to her tally while Glass, Natale and O'Mara all tucked away one each.
The Wildcats found the back of the net two more times in the final quarter of play raising their score to seven total for the contest. Mazo closed out the game with two more tallies for herself. Natale and Cabral each had one goal apiece to bring the final score to 18-7. Cabral's second of the game came with 5:04 remaining in regulation to record her 100th career point.
A group of season highs were recognized for Pierce as she led the squad with five goals, Mazo who scored four, Natale as she netted three and finally Glass as she converted two for the contest. Cabral and O'Mara also closed out the contest with two goals for themselves.
Katherine Stahl (Middletown, R.I./Middletown) collected two assists while five other Valiants nabbed one.
McDonald was rock-solid in goal, tallying 12 saves for a season-high .632 save percentage for the game. The rookie netminder has made 12 or more saves in three straight games and improves to 2-3 with the win.
Up Next
The Valiants eagerly head into conference play with their first matchup against Farmingdale State College March 26 at 6:00pm on GoValiants.com Field.
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