PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Delaware Valley women's lacrosse team fought a tough battle against Manhattanville unable to pull ahead by more than a margin of three ultimately securing the victory by just a single-goal, 12-11.
 
The win marks the fourth consecutive for the Aggies this season now improving to 5-2 overall. The single-goal victory marks the smallest margin of victory this season. DelVal now just stands three wins away from tying the program record for wins in a single season.
 
The game remained scoreless until the fifth minute when the Valiants broke the drought and put the first goal on the board. Ashley Birmingham answered the call with back-to-back solo goals over a two-minute span to place the Aggies in the lead, 2-1. Manhattanville went on a short two-goal run to regain the lead until a free position shot put Abbie Hostetler in scoring position to even things up, 3-3. With only 1:45 in the first quarter, Kyra McKeegan netted her first goal of the game for the lead change, but the Valiants evened the score just 15 seconds later to end the frame at 4-4.
 
DelVal used a three-goal run to pull ahead 7-4 in the second quarter. Katie Martin netted the unassisted goal at 7:08 followed just over a minute later by two consecutive goals from McKeegan, one on the man-up- advantage. The Valiants managed to get one past Emily Drake, but a free position goal from Birmingham stuffed their attempt at a run and kept the Aggies ahead by three, 8-5, with 2:36 to play in the half. Manhattanville added one more goal before the end of the quarter to cut the Aggies' lead back to two, 8-6.
 
A scoreless four minutes started the second half before the teams traded goals with Charley Lengel-Kramer netting her first of the game to keep DelVal's two-goal margin, 9-7. Manhattanville began to close in using a 2-0 run to even the score, 9-9.  Martin responded following a three-minute scoring drought netting her second goal of the game to put the Aggies back on top, 10-9. DelVal extended its lead thanks to the free position goal from Gabriella Guerra, 11-9, but Manhattanville cut the deficit down to one in the final seconds.
 
A penalty for the Valiants gave DelVal the person-up advantage and a free position chance at the net just eight minutes into the final quarter. Guerra stepped up a second time for the free shot and sunk it to give DelVal another two-goal cushion, 12-10. The Valiants struggled to claw back getting off just one shot before converting the final goal of the game with just under a minute on the clock to give DelVal just a single-goal margin of victory, 12-11.
 
McKeegan and Birmingham led the scoring each recording a hat trick. Guerra went 2-of-3 on free position shots sinking two critical goals in the third and fourth quarters. Birmingham and Viola Anderson led the team in ground balls with five each. Lengel-Kramer forced a team-high four turnovers and McKeegan led in draw controls with three. Emily Drake played all 60 minutes in the goal making eight saves on 19 shots faced.
 
DelVal returns to action next Wednesday, Mar. 26 when they travel to Immaculata at 5 p.m.