ROCHESTER, NY – The Nazareth women's hockey team closed out the regular season with an 8-1 drubbing of Manhattanville on Senior Day to carry strong momentum into next week's UCHC Championships in which the Golden Flyers are the number one seed. Makenna Wiljanen and Nikki Sharp each finished the game with two goals and one assist.
 
Nazareth celebrated senior day, honoring Kate Cascio, Julia Holmes and McKinley Hoff before the game.
 
The Golden Flyers finished the conference season unblemished at 19-0-1 and are 19-5-1 overall. Nazareth will host 8^th seeded King's (5-19-1 overall, 4-15-1 UCHC) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the UCHC quarterfinals.  The Golden Flyers defeated the Monarchs twice by a score of 4-0 on November 10 and 11.
 
After scoring two goals in Friday's win, Nazareth erupted for three goals in each of the first two periods.
 
Wiljanen scored in the slot off a pass from Ivy Lyden 6:12 into the game on the power play to open up the scoring.
 
Past the midway point, Alexis Jones won a battle behind the net and found Allie Zack for a slap shot into the net to make it 2-0.
 
With 1:15 remaining in the period, Meredith Boettcher scored her team-leading 13^th of the season on a nice give-and-go with Wiljanen.
 
Just over a minute into the second, Corsica Skibinski scored on a drop back pass from Ella Cedrone to make it 4-0. Niikki Sharp also had an assist on the play.
 
At the 15:07 mark, Julia Holmes let one fly from the point that Juliet Rutigliano deflected out of the air to tally her second of the season.
 
Over a minute later, Sharp scored her eighth of the season on a nice backhand from Cedrone and Lyden. 
 
Leading 6-0, Wiljanen got her second of the day just :19 seconds into the third on a shot that trickled in from Boettcher and Sydney Swanson.
 
The Valiants eventually were able to find the net with under five minutes to play before Sharp scored a highlight reel goal with :24 seconds to play.
 
Hoff made 18 saves between the pipes.