Nicole Cerza scored two goals and Michelle Relin added one as the University of Rochester opened the 2015 field hockey season with a 3-0 victory over Nazareth College at Edwin Fauver Stadium.
 
Cerza scored both of her goals in the second half – six minutes apart. Relin, who is Rochester's career leader in goals (58 now) and total points 141 through tonight), opened the scoring in the 12^th minute from a penalty corner.
 
Nazareth goaltender Lauren Devine  made 11 saves in 50:26. Kimber Nourse stopped three shots in the final 19:34.

For Rochester, Tara Lamberti made one save, but it denied Nazareth an equalizer one minute after Relin's opener for Rochester.
 
Catherine Willard received the ball deep in the left side of the circle and headed towards goal. Six yards out, she fired for the right post. Lamberti used her pad to knock the shot down and her defenders cleared it from harm's way. It was the best chance of the match for Nazareth. Willard did have another chance 10 minutes into the second half. She took the ball just over midfield, outpaced a couple of defenders, and from just inside the circle, fired wide of the left post.
 
Steady Rochester pressure resulted in a series of penalty corners in the first half for Rochester and the fourth one in a sequence produced the opening goal. Olivia Denny played the ball out of the right side to the top of the circle where Sayaka Abe stopped it and slid it over to Relin. She drove her shot into the lower left hand corner at 11:14.
 
Cerza earned her first goal after a long pass down the middle from Miranda Lakis. She redirected it into the lower left hand corner at 41:06. Six minutes later, Devine blocked a shot by Relin in the center of the box. The rebound fell to Cerza and she pushed it home from two yards out.