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HOUGHTON, N.Y. -- Visiting Nazareth opened the Empire 8 Conference portion of its field hockey schedule Saturday with a 3-2 victory over Houghton at Burke Field.
The Golden Flyers improved to 3-3 overall and 1-0 in conference play, while the Highlanders dropped to 2-4 overall and 0-1 in the E8.
Sophomore Natalie L'Hommedieu and senior Jessica Livesey scored for the Golden Flyers in the second half to break a 1-1 deadlock to give Nazareth the lead. Houghton trimmed the lead to 3-2 with less than two minutes remaining, but the Golden Flyers held on for their first E8 win since Oct. 15, 2016.
Junior Jennifer Hilts scored her fourth goal of the season for Nazareth at 16:56 of the first half after retrieving a pass from freshman Mikaylee Whalen for a 1-0 lead. Houghton, however, tied the score with a goal in the opening minute of the second half by Caitlin Jennings, who scored for the seventh time.
That set the stage for L'Hommedieu, who converted a penalty corner off the stick of Jessica Livesey for her second goal of the saeason at 47:42. About 15 minutes later, Hilts broke free from the Houghton defense and passed to Livesey, who was along in front of the goal and she converted for her first goal of the season.
Nazareth had a 14-12 edge in shots and penalty corners were seven at 7-7. Senior Kimber Nourse played in goal for Nazareth and made five saves. Senior Leah Good also made a defensive save.
Nazareth plays a non-conference road game Tuesday at Oswego at 4 p.m.