PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – The University of Rochester field hockey team saw its season come to a close on Wednesday afternoon after falling 2-1 to visiting Denison University in the 1st Round of the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Tournament at Fauver Stadium.
 
Denison (17-3) picked up its first NCAA Tournament win in 19 years and will move on to face #4 Tufts University in the second round on Saturday, with the game being played at Johns Hopkins University.  Rochester (14-9) falls in its opening game of the NCAA's for the first time in school history, spanning six NCAA appearances.
 
Maya Haigis scored Rochester's lone goal in early in the fourth quarter, giving UR a much needed momentum boost, but the Yellowjackets could not pull even as the Denison defense held off the rally in the waning minutes, which included back-to-back UR corners in the final sixty seconds.
 
AC Veith scored a goal and assisted on the other for the Big Red, while Maya Tumiwa notched the games opening goal in the first quarter.
 
In the cages, Denison's Teya Adams made three saves while Kate Kujawa made four stops for UR.  Both Emma Schlechter and Kathryn Colone also added defensive saves for Rochester.
 
Rochester's Kira Ozer had the first shot of the game and it nearly resulted in putting Rochester on the board at the three minute mark of the first quarter.  Ozer's attempt from in close on the left side of the circle slid through Adams' five-hole, but ended up just trickling wide of the post.
 
Denison's Charlotte Godfrey, the teams leading scorer then had a golden opportunity in the 7th minute when she slipped behind the defense and got off a wide open backhand shot from eight yards, but Kujawa made a great save, keeping the game scoreless.
 
The Big Red followed that chance by keeping the offensive pressure on, leading to a trio of penalty corners, the third of which resulted in the opening goal of the contest.  Tumiwa found the back of the net at 11:31, blasting a top of circle shot into the low corner of the net off of Veith's insert pass.
 

A little over a minute later, Colone denied Tumiwa of her second goal of the game, clearing a shot off the line following a scramble inside the circle.
 
Rochester started the second quarter by earning a quick PC in the opening minute.  Colleen Maillie nearly notched the equalizer, but her shot ended up deflecting off the post and away to safety.
 
In the 23rd minute, UR earned another corner which resulted in two shots, the first from Amanda Strenk, was blocked.  The follow up rebound by Emma Schlechter was then saved by Adams who was sprawled out on the ground in front of the cage.
 
Midway through the third period, Rochester's Maillie took another hard shot from outside the circle which found the cage, but unfortunately did not count as the Yellowjackets were unable to get a deflection on it from inside the circle.
 
A few minutes later, Denison's Abby Scully nearly made it 2-0, but Schlechter made a strong defensive play in the cage, sweeping a ball off the line after it slipped past the stick of Kujawa.
 
Denison double the lead in the final minute of the third quarter on a well executed tip play off a corner.  Veith, the inserter, sent the ball out to Charlotte Happel who sent a hard shot towards the goal.  Veith was then left open at the right post and deflected the ball perfectly into the top right corner of the net for the 2-0 lead.
 
In the fourth, Dension was charged with a green card, leading to UR capitalizing on the player advantage.  At 47:31, Haigis cut the deficit in half when she ripped a hard shot just inside the right post off a penalty corner pass from Juney Lee.
 
The Big Red tried to regain the two goal lead with three shots and three corners over the next few minutes, but Rochester was able to hold the visitors off.  That would lead to a dramatic sequence in the games final minute where the Yellowjackets would earn two penalty corners, but only post one shot, one from Maillie which slid just wide of the Denison goal with 11 seconds left.
 
Overall in the game, Denison finished with an 18-9 shot advantage, also leading in corners 9-8.