The University of Rochester field hockey team got an early goal and made it stand up in a 2-0 victory over visiting Vassar College in a Liberty League matchup on Saturday at Edwin Fauver Stadium.
 
18th-ranked Rochester with the win moves to 7-2 overall on the season and is 2-0 in the Liberty League while Vassar drops to 6-4 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
 
UR's Claire Dickerson scored the game-winning goal, her sixth of the season, by tapping in a cross from teammate Jennifer Lee in the fifth minute of the contest, coming on the first shot of the game.
 
Dickerson nearly made it 2-0 in the 14th minute when she got a piece of a Maya Haigis backhand shot in close which got passed Brewer keeper Liz Rotolo, but teammate Nikki Pollotta was there to make the defensive save, keeping it a one goal contest.
 

With 15 minutes left in the opening half, Vassar's Alyssa More unleashed a hard shot from the right wing off a nifty set up from Megan Caveny, but the shot sailed wide of the UR cage.
 
At the break, UR had a 5-1 edge in shots and 3-0 lead in corners.
 
After halftime, the Yellowjackets doubled the lead with a goal from Haigis coming on a penalty corner.  The insert pass found Colleen Maillie at the top of the circle, Haigis ripped a low hard shot through traffic in front of the cage which found the right side of the goal.  It was the sophomore's first tally of the season.
 
Five minutes later, the Brewers earned two of their five second half penalty corners back-to-back, but couldn't generate a shot on either attempt.
 
Rochester's Lee took a game high eight shot attempts, one of which came in the 55th minute and was kicked away by Rotolo in the Vassar cage.  The Brewer keeper made a nice adjustment on the ball, getting just enough of her foot on it, preventing UR from gaining a three-goal advantage.
 
At 62:25, Vassar had a great chance to get on the board, but Mikayla Young's tip attempt off a penalty corner pass from the top of the circle went just wide of the open cage.
 
The last minute of play saw the Brewers get a pair of shots off of the final PC of the contest, both by Strom Sideleau.  The first attempt slipped past UR keeper Gabrielle Cantley but was saved by Maillie in the goal mouth.  The second shot was stopped by the senior goaltender who earned her first solo shutout of the season.
 
Overall, Cantley made just the one save for Rochester while Rotolo made six stops for the Brewers.  Rochester held a 12-4 edge in shots and took six corners to Vassar's five in the game.
 
The Yellowjackets next contest will be Wednesday night (10/4) at St. John Fisher while Vassar has a week off to prepare for nationally ranked William Smith College who plays in Poughkeepsie on October 7th.