UTICA, N.Y. – The Manhattanville University women's hockey team wrapped up its road regular season on Saturday afternoon, falling to Utica by a final of 1-0 to split the weekend series. The Valiants will carry a 5-17-1 overall record and a 5-7-0 UCHC mark into the final week, currently holding the No. 6 seed with two more opportunities to climb up the playoff standings.

After 42 scoreless minutes, the elusive opening either side was searching for came in the form of a body checking penalty that put Utica on the power play early in the third. The Pioneers rifled off three shots in the first 36 seconds with the numbers advantage, with the last one off the stick of Angelina Garganese eluding Olivia Cimorelli (West Deptford, N.J./The Hill School / Ironbound Elite) to give Utica what proved to be all the offense needed on the day.

A day removed from setting the single-season saves record, Cimorelli added 24 more stops to her new program-leading mark. The sophomore finished with eight saves in each period, now standing at 682 with at least three games remaining to build on more. Cimorelli now holds a 2.44 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage.

After surrendering the go-ahead goal, the Valiants looked to have a golden opportunity to strike back as a pair of Utica penalties 37 seconds apart put Manhattanville on an extended 5-on-3 advantage. Unfortunately, the numbers game would not pay off as the Valiants could not register a shot with the two extra skaters before taking a penalty of their own to shut down a breakaway going the other direction, ultimately going scoreless over the remainder of 4-on-3 before the boxes cleared.

Manhattanville had one last chance after Utica's fifth penalty of the afternoon gave the Vals the woman advantage with 1:11 left to go, but Katherine Sheahan was able to make her 19^th and final save of the contest to hold off the closing-seconds threat.

Colby Cantor (Norwell, Mass./North American Hockey Academy) provided five of Manhattanville's 19 shots on net, adding a pair of blocks. Harper Weisbeck (Pittsford, N.Y./Pittsford Sutherland) and Taylor Willoughby (Camrose, Alberta, Canada/Northern Alberta Extreme) added three each, with Willoughby also providing two blocks. Emilija Tučiūtė (Vilnius, Lithuania/Ontario Hockey Academy) got in the way of five shots to take away Utica's open looks at the cage.

The Pioneers had a 38-16 advantage on the faceoff. Lillee Dougherty (Wakefield, R.I./Portsmouth Abbey School) and Jada Mackinnon (Barrington, Nova Scotia, Canada/King's Edgehill School) won six each for Manhattanville.

Up Next
The Valiants close out the regular season back at home next weekend, opening a two-game series with Elmira on Friday at 7 p.m.

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