PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – Rochester field hockey head coach Wendy Andreatta picked up her 200th career victory in a big conference win as the Yellowjackets edged visiting Skidmore College 3-2 at Fauver Stadium on Friday afternoon.
 
Rochester pushes its record to 10-3 on the season and picks up a key conference victory, improving to 3-1 in Liberty League play. Skidmore falls to 6-8 and 1-3 in the conference.
 
The game-winning goal was scored on a penalty stroke with just under two minutes to play by senior co-captain Amanda Strenk. Strenk's goal was her team leading 18th goal of the year and breaks her own school record for penalty stroke goals in a season, notching her fourth of the year.
 
UR's other two goals were scored in the opening half by senior Juney Lee. It was Lee's first career multi-goal game.
 
The scoring got started by Lee in the third minute of the contest off a corner. Mara Heppard inserted the ball to Lee and the senior laced a low rocket into the left corner of the goal for her third of the season.
 
In the second, Lee again scored early in the period to double the Yellowjacket lead, benefitting from a fortunate bounce in the Skidmore defensive zone. On the play, Julia McDonough sent a long ball from midfield leading Lee on a breakaway into the circle.
 
Lee then chopped at her shot and got it past Jess Gaetgens in the Skidmore goal but a defender was there to attempt and sweep the ball away. Gaetgens scrambled back towards the goal line trying to recover got in the way of her teammates clearance and deflected the ball off her pads and back into the net for the goal.
 

Skidmore responded from a 2-0 halftime deficit by dominating play in the third quarter, getting two goals from Carrie Hughes. In the third, the Thoroughbreds outshot UR 6-1 and took five corners to UR's one.
 
Hughes scored just 51 seconds into the third on a well-executed corner play. After inserting the ball into teammate Sofia Marshall, Hughes camped at the left post, received a perfect pass from Marshall and had an open net for the tap-in goal.
 
After keeper Abigal Walrond made a save on the next Skidmore corner a few minutes later, the third corner of the period for the Thoroughbreds led to the tying goal in the 44th minute.
 
At that time, Hughes, again the inserter, ended up with the ball five yards out in a scramble and was able slip her shot through the defense and past Walrond's pads for the goal, her fifth of the year.
 
Down the stretch in the quarter, Walrond was able to make two more saves on two other Skidmore corners to keep the game tied.
 
In the fourth, UR switched keepers to Helen Schmitter, but the first-year goalie was not forced to make a save, but earned her first collegiate victory in playing the clean final 15 minutes.
 
Rochester responded in the fourth in a big way, outshooting Skidmore 12-0 and answering back with four of the periods five total corners.
 
Lee and Strenk had a number of chances in the fourth for the game-winning goal before it was ultimately scored in the 59th minute. The best of those chances came when Strenk got a shot past Gaetgens on a rebound at 55:52, but Lauren Ruggiero was in good position for the Skidmore defense, picking up a defensive save with her clearance off the line.
 
To earn the deciding stroke a few minutes later, Rochester had three back-to-back opportunities off a corner. Lee had the first two shot attempts, one blocked and one saved, with Nikki Mercer getting a shot off the second rebound. Mercer's shot got past the keeper, but struck a defenders foot on an imminent goal, leading to the awarding of a stroke which Strenk deposited into the net for the game-winner.
 
For the game, UR ended with a 20-10 shot advantage and 10-7 lead in penalty corners.
 
The game was the eighth straight in the all-time series that was decided by one goal, with UR five of those eight games.