BOX SCORE

Purchase, NY (October 1, 2011) – The DeSales University women's soccer team was tripped up in its Freedom Conference season opener, falling 2-1 at Manhattanville College on Saturday afternoon.

The Bulldogs (1-8-1, 0-1 Freedom) out-shot Manhattanville (1-10, 1-0 Freedom), 22-12 and held an 8-3 advantage in corner kicks but the Valiants took advantage of its opportunities, scoring twice to record its first win of the season.

MVille got both its goals within 2:59 of each other, albeit in two different halves as the Valiants struck first with just 1:19 left in the first half when Sonia Occhionero took a long pass and dribbled around the DSU keeper to fire a shot into a wide open net.  MVC then made it a 2-0 game just 1:40 into the second half as Occhionero assisted on a goal by Brittney Smith.

DeSales was able to pull within one at the 72:16 mark when sophomore Melissa Pugliese scored her first career goal on assists from both freshman Megan Strauser and senior Amanda Fink but was never able to get the tying marker in the loss.  The helper for Fink is her 17th career assist, tying her with Emily LaDuke for the all-time lead at DeSales.

Senior Melissa Millili made four saves in net for the Bulldogs.

DeSales will return to action on Tuesday, October 4th when they host Gwynedd-Mercy College in a non-conference game beginning at 4:00 pm.