Courtesy of the Manhattanville College Sports Information Office 

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. - Senior Jess Zimmerman (Wauseon, Ohio) beat Rikki Nespor 49 seconds into overtime to send the Manhattanville women's hockey team into the third NCAA Championship game in program history as the Valiants defeated UW-Superior 4-3 (ot) Friday at Stafford Arena.

Zimmerman knocked down a loose puck, skated in and fired a low shot that beat Nespor, ending an evenly matched game that see-sawed back and forth.

The teams went into the first intermission scoreless despite a last minute chance for the Valiants with under two minutes left to play as Danielle Nagymarosi (Uxbridge, Ontario) fed Natalie Zitek (Charleston, W. Va.) with a backhanded pass in front of Rikki Nespor, who made the save. With under a minute to play, Zimmerman stopped a Superior clearing attempt and skated in with just one defenseman in her way, but couldn't get a shot on net.

In the second, Amanda Nonis (Brampton, Ontario) was put in the penalty box for body checking and Superior's Kim Schmmeichel put a shot on net from the point that nearly got past Karine Turmel (Ste.-Marguerite, Quebec), but the Valiant goaltender made the save and corralled the rebound. As soon as Nonis got out of the box, the Valiants changed lines and Superior brought a 2-on-1 into the Valiant defensive zone and Gina Barenzelli fired a shot on net that was deflected up into the air and fell down dangerously into the crease where Dani Poupart (Fernie, British Columbia) was able to dump the puck out of the Manhattanville zone.

With under four minutes to play Yellowjacket freshman Teagan Cassan skated into the Manhattanville zone to the left of Turmel and put a puck on net from an impossible angle that somehow sneaked past Turmel alongside the post to give Superior a 1-0 lead.

The Valiants stormed back and in a similar way, less than a minute later when Alex Blackwell (Brewster, N.Y.) put a shot on net from an impossible angle that beat Nespor to even the score at one. Senior Danielle Mazurek (Eaglesham, Alberta) was credited with her 12th assist and 20th point of the season, continuing her best offensive season, statistically.

Manhattanville took the lead on the power play with Kristi Hakala in the penalty box for body checking. Sarah Fullerton (Port Tobacco, Md.) fired a shot from the point that was deflected in by Amanda Nonis, through the legs of Nespor to give the Valiants a 2-1 lead. The goal was the seventh power play tally for Nonis on the season, tying Jessica Temesy's program record of 19.

With just under 13 minutes to play in the third period, Turmel made two spectacular saves to protect the Valiant lead. She poke checked an attempted centering pass by Gina Barenzelli and kicked out a deflection in front of the net. But with seven seconds remaining on an Erin Brawley (Stratford, Conn.) tripping penalty, Allie Pullar got her own rebound and fired a shot past Turmel, through traffic, from inside the faceoff circle to Turmel's right.

Superior's Brittany Bembeneck was in the penalty box when Gina Barenzelli was also assessed a penalty, giving the Valiants a 5-on-3 for 39 seconds. After Superior dumped the puck into the Manhattanville zone, Poupart found Amanda Nonis at the Superior blue line where she split the defenders, skated in and beat Nespor for her program record 20th power play goal.

The Yellowjackets tied the game at three when Brianne Mosher scored her ninth goal of the season, beating Turmel glove side from a narrow angle for a power play goal.

The game headed into overtime where Zimmerman quickly beat Nespor to send Manhattanville to the third NCAA Championship game in program history. The Valiants were defeated by Elmira in the program's other two NCAA Championship games, 2-1 in 2001-02 and 5-1 in 2002-03.

The Valiants (27-6-0) advance to the NCAA Championship game, to be played Saturday at 7:00 p.m. and will face the winner of Elmira/Plattsburgh on a live video feed available at NCAA.com. The Valiants are 0-2 against Elmira this season and 1-1 against Plattsburgh, the win coming on November 24, 2008 when Manhattanville ended the Cardinals' NCAA record 35 game unbeaten streak with a 4-3 win at the Playland Ice Casino.