GENEVA, N.Y. - Rochester will play for the Liberty League Field Hockey Championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs after posting a 2-1 victory over top-seeded William Smith College on Wednesday evening. UR will face Skidmore College which defeated Vassar College, 3-1. The game will be played on Saturday at 1 pm in Saratoga Springs.

Both winners went into the semifinals as lower seeds. Rochester was seeded fourth in the four-team field. William Smith, by virtue of a 5-1 league record, was the top seed. Vassar earned the #2 seed after several tiebreakers. Skidmore was the third seed. Vassar, Skidmore, and Rochester all finished 4-2 in the league season. Vassar defeated both UR and Skidmore to earn the upper hand in the three-way tie. Skidmore defeated Rochester, 2-1, in Saratoga Springs on October 21. That put the Throughbreds into the three spot.

It is the second victory of the year for Rochester over William Smith. The Yellowjackets defeated the Herons, 3-0, at Fauver Stadium in early October. They scored all three goals off penalty corners.

They did the same thing this time. Maya Haigis scored both goals, orchestrated each time by Sayaka Abe. She scored the equalizer at 18:54, driving a shot home from the top of the arc after Abe's pass following the insertion. They Yellowjackets broke the 1-1 tie at 57:49. Nancy Bansbach inserted the pass. Abe settled it, then slid the ball to Haigis who drove it home from the left point.

William Smith stepped up the pressure and Rochester had to produce two quality saves - both on penalty corners - in the next minute. The Herons had Maura Moran set up leading scorer Hannah Wood for a shot at 58:17. Kiran Sundaram was out of position, but Alexis Wood was there for a defensive save. It led to another PC. Same scenario - ball played to Moran over to Wood whose shot was saved by Sundaram.

She came up with one more big save with just over 90 seconds to play. WSC had a penalty corner and this time, Moran's pass found Alexandra Frary for a shot that Sundaram saved. 

Moran put WSC on the board first, scoring at 9:10. She outfoxed a defender, went around her, and scored from left wing.

William Smith held a 14-8 edge in shots. Penalty corners were even at 5-5. Rochester had one in the second half and that turned out to be the gamewinning goal. William Smith had four PCs in the second 35 minutes. 

In goal, Gabrielle Cantley played the first half making two saves on six shots. Sundaram had three saves on eight Heron shots in the second half. She picked up the victory. Biz Chirco made two saves in goal for WSC.

Rochester improved to 17-3 overall. William Smith finished its season at 12-6.