ROCHESTER, NY – Sophomore Mikaila Rubin scored in the second period as the Nazareth College women's hockey team dominated the period but William Smith scored twice in the first period and added an empty net goal to take a 3-1 decision Saturday afternoon in the first round of the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) Tournament at the Bill Gray's Iceplex.

With the victory, William Smith (18-8-0) advances to play Manhattanville who defeated Chatham 7-1 in a quarterfinal game. The other UCHC semifinal will feature Elmira against Stevenson. Elmira won a game over Utica and Stevenson was a 2-1 winner over Neumann.

In the loss to William Smith, the Golden Flyers (18-5-3) fell behind in the first period as the Herons took advantage of a pair of neutral zone turnovers and skated in on odd man rushes to beat goalie Adrianna Brehm for the early lead. William Smith scored at the 10:28 mark and again with 5:05 left in the opening period.

Nazareth came out firing in the second period and outshot the Herons 21-4 in the period but could only manage one goal when Rubin took a pass up the boards from Nikolle Van Stralen and had her first shot saved but was able to tap in the rebound to cut the lead in half just 1:15 into the period.

William Smith goalie Amanda Aalto made several key saves in the period and the Herons carried the one-goal lead into the final period.

Nazareth had an 18-8 shots advantage in the third period but Aalto was able to stop each of the shots and William Smith scored late in the game on the empty Nazareth net for the final margin of victory.