MEDFORD, MA – Host and 8th-ranked Tufts University held off the 24th-ranked University of Rochester field hockey team in a high-scoring 4-3 matchup on Sunday afternoon at Tufts' Ounjian Field.
Rochester (9-2), snaps a four-match win streak, while Tufts improves to 7-2 with the victory.
The Jumbos combined to hold Rochester to just three shots in the game, but the Yellowjackets found the cage with all three attempts to make it a tight contest throughout.
Molly Newbold,
Erin Foley and
Sophia Marcotte picked up the goals for the Yellowjackets, while the Jumbos had four different goal scorers in the victory. Rochester's
Kara Houston made 12 saves in the cage for the visitors.
Tufts opened the scoring less than 90 seconds into the contest. After a penalty corner, the ball came out to Eleanor Luft who blasted a rocket towards the left post that was redirected in by Lilly Ragusa for the 1-0 lead.
UR earned its first penalty corner of the game in the eighth minute, but the Jumbo defense was able to defend the play without surrendering a shot.
In the second, Tufts got a couple early penalty corners but could not make anything of them and left the door open for Rochester to tie it late in the quarter with a tip-in goal from
Molly Newbold. After Marcotte inserted the ball, a pass set up
Kyla Byer for a shot from the top of the circle that was deflected in front by Newbold for her third score of the season.
The Jumbos scored a pair of goals two minutes apart in the third quarter to regain the lead, going up 3-1 after tallies from Katarina Villa and Eleanor Helm.
Rochester got back within one six minutes into the final period, scoring off a penalty corner. Marcotte inserted and the ball made its way to the right wing to
Sophia Cuneo. Cuneo then sent a ball in front towards the cage where sophomore
Erin Foley one-timed in the ball out of mid-air and into the net, making the score 3-2 Tufts.
Another redirect goal, this time by Tufts, regained the Jumbos two-goal margin a few minutes later. Hannah Biccard found the cage off a pass from Villa at the top of the circle.
With the clock ticking under 60 seconds remaining, Marcotte capitalized on a Tufts turnover in the midfield and scored her first collegiate goal with a perfectly placed bouncing shot from the right wing to the low left corner.
Unfortunately, the Yellowjackets comeback attempt ran out of time, with the Jumbos holding possession over the final minute to seal the victory.
Up next, URochester shifts its focus to conference play, with seven of the final eight regular season games being Liberty League contests, starting with a home matchup against Skidmore on Friday at 4 pm.
