(3-1-0)  

  1 2 F  Lafayette 0 0 0  Manhattan 2 1 3   Box Score

(4-1-0)  

EASTON, Pa. - The Lafayette women's soccer team surrendered its first loss of the season on Sunday afternoon at Mike Bourger '44 Field at Oaks Stadium, a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Manhattan.

"We got beat by a better team today. The three goals they scored were well taken by a good player and full credit to them for their performance," head coach Mick Statham said. "We came out a little slow...Our play dictated how we felt emotionally. We had a big win Thursday night and then the football game last night honoring Brian Keller was hard on a lot of players as expected. I thought we played how we felt, a little sad and emotionally drained. That being said, I'm not taking anything away from Manhattan. They were very good today and deserved to win."

Following a big overtime win on Thursday night over Monmouth, the Leopards certainly looked to be the slower team on Sunday. Manhattan came out of the gates firing as Erica Modena put on a show all afternoon with a trio of goals for the Jaspers.

Modena's opening tally came less than 10 minutes into the match when she ran onto a through ball at the midfield stripe. From there, she used her pace to out run a pair of Leopard defenders before finishing past Lafayette junior goalkeeper Danielle Sedillo on the left side for a 1-0 lead.

After another 10 minutes, Modena struck again on a Manhattan counter-attack. Nicole Copping sent a long ball that Modena was able to run under and slot past Sedillo for the second marker.

After the second goal, the Maroon and White seemed to refocus as their first real scoring chance came less than a minute later. Junior Melissa Lynskey fed a short pass across the box to an open Kaelin King on the far side with a tough angle, but an open shot at the goal. King's strike was right into the mits of Manhattan goalkeeper Kelly DiGregorio to thwart the chance.

King would have a second chance, though, as just a few minutes later came the Leopards' best opportunity of the day at a goal. A long ball was flicked on by Lynskey and found King in the middle of the box with space and just the keeper to beat. The junior looked to try to do too much, sending a skidding dribbler past the right post and out for a goal kick.

That chance seemed to sum up the day for the Leopards, who surrendered the deciding tally 15 minutes into the second session as Modena completed her hat trick. Dylan Burns worked her way down the right side and sent a service across the front of the box to Modena on the far side. The junior forward settled and slotted it home to push the scoreline to 3-0.

A pair of Lafayette shots would find the post and crossbar at different points in the second half, but nothing found the net as the Leopards dropped to 3-1-0 on the season and Manhattan improved to 4-1-0.

Sedillo made one save on the afternoon in her first defeat of the 2015 season, while DiGregorio stopped four Leopard shots on goal for her first victory and the clean sheet. Lafayette led in shots, 12-7, and corners, 6-3.

Next up for the women is a trip to UMass-Lowell on Friday for a 4 p.m. contest.