PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – The University of Rochester field hockey team was defeated 2-1 in overtime by visiting Union College on Saturday afternoon in late season Liberty League conference matchup.
Union (11-7) improves to 5-2 in the Liberty League, closing out its conference slate, while Rochester (13-5) moves to 4-2 in the Liberty League with one conference matchup still to be played next week. Saturday's result had a big impact on the Liberty League standings, with the Garnet Chargers now holding a potential tiebreaker over Rochester.
The Garnet Chargers got the winning goal from Amy Vytopilova in the 67th minute, as she deflected in a hard shot from Rowan Dapson along the right side of the circle. Dapson scored the equalizer for Union in the late part of the third quarter, sending the game into the extra session.
Rochester got on the board early, scoring a goal on its first shot of the game in the fifth minute. The play came off a corner, with
Sophia Marcotte notching her second goal of the year.
The play started with Marcotte inserting the ball to
Abigal Mateer on the left wing. Mateer swung the ball over to
Anya Arseneau on the right side who sent the ball towards the goal. In traffic,
Erin Foley got a stick on it, deflecting the ball over to the far post where Marcotte was waiting and slapped in her shot.
Union's first shot on goal came at the 11:20 mark of the first, with a deflected shot by Maggie Monaghan being stuffed at the right post by Rochester keeper
Kara Houston.
The Garnet Chargers pressed early in the second quarter, earning three straight penalty corners. All three attempts were thwarted by Houston in goal though, with the senior keeping her team in front by a goal.
In the third, Union's Dapson notched the tying goal on a 7-yard blast in the center of the circle following a penalty corner. The play initially went outside the circle after a mid-handled insert pass, but Dapson recovered, found space, and unleashed a rocket shot that beat Houston to her left side.
Shortly after the tying goal, Rochester nearly regained the lead with
Sophia Cuneo being denied by a strong defensive play on the goal line by defender Amelia Stevens. After inserting a corner to Mateer, Cuneo corralled a bouncing ball in close by the post and slipped a shot past goalkeeper Sophie Brady, but Stevens was in good position to clear the ball off the line.
Union held most of the possession in the fourth quarter, and led 7-1 in shots over the 15 minutes but was unable to score the go-ahead goal, sending the game into overtime. The extra session ended up being Rochester's seventh game this season that went beyond regulation time.
Less than two minutes into overtime, the Yellowjackets nearly had the game-winning goal when Cuneo's backhand shot from in close clanged off the post.
Union regained its composure and held Rochester without a shot the rest of the way, eventually netting the winner on Vytopilova's deflection in the 67th minute.
Based on other results around the Liberty League on Saturday, the Yellowjackets have clinched a spot in the 5-team Liberty League conference tournament, with seeding still to be determined following Wednesday's final regular season conference matches. That evening Rochester plays at William Smith at 6 pm, while Vassar also hosts RPI that evening to determine the final playoff seeds.
