PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – A pair of first-year players connected on second half goals, lifting the #15 University of Rochester women's soccer team past visiting York College of Pennsylvania 2-0 on Saturday afternoon at Edwin Fauver Stadium.
 
Sydney Holmes scored the game-winner for Rochester (5-0-1) in the 78th minute, while classmate Maya Bravo added an insurance tally at the 83-minute mark.
 
In goal, Grace Kuropatking played all 90 minutes and earned the shutout for the Yellowjackets, stopping five shots.
 
Despite getting outshot 9-0 in the opening half, the Spartans (2-4) kept up the pressure over the first 45 minutes, leading to several Yellowjacket turnovers in their own defensive end. York earned three corner kicks in the first half, but a swarming UR defensive unit was able to deflect those chances away.
 
Overall in the game, York held the edge in corners, leading 4-3. Rochester won the shot battle, 20 to five, with eight attempts on target. All five Spartan shots ended on frame.
 
Rochester's first solid chance of the game came at the 7:13 mark when Riya Kunderan made a cross field pass to Mia McGinty who followed up with a chip up front to Claire Grover who fired a shot from 12 yards just high of the goal.
 
In the 19th minute, UR's Kunderan and Grover had two more point-blank chances inside the box turned away by York keeper Teresa Gonzalez. The Spartan keeper ended the contest with six shots on the day.
 
York's first shot attempt in the game came off the foot of Ashlynn Weger in the 55th minute, forcing Kuropatkin to make a diving save to her left. She tapped a one-timer shot towards the goal off a cross from the left side.
 
Two minutes later, Kuropatkin again denied Weger, stopping her looping right-footed shot from 20 yards out.
 
In the 65th minute, another first-year, Lauren Blanch sent a dangerous ball from the right side into the crease, finding a streaking Grover at the goal mouth. Grover, UR's leading scorer on the year just missed the left-footed redirection, sending her shot just wide of the left post.
 
With under 19 minutes to play, a York foul earned Rochester a free kick just outside the box along the left side. Megan Pung's service came into the box and an unmarked Blanch directed her one-timer shot hard off the crossbar, keeping the game scoreless.
 
Rochester finally was able to break through on the scoreboard at 77:36 when Holmes headed in a corner kick from Grace Regenstreif. The first-year goal scorer was one of several Yellowjackets in the crowded crease and found space at the back post, connecting for her first collegiate goal.
 
A wonderful strike from Bravo gave the Yellowjackets a key insurance tally at the 82:55. Teammate Katharina Probst sent a pass into the center to Bravo who took one dribble and ripped a shot just under the crossbar from 16 yards out.
 
Rochester's next contest is slated for Thursday against St. John Fisher University, with the game kicking off at 7 pm. The matchup will serve as Rochester's Project Purple game, an initiative aimed at raising awareness for pancreatic cancer.