BROOKLYN, NY – The 7th-ranked University of Rochester women's basketball team fell to the No. 8 New York University Violets, 80-67, on Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, NY.
 
Erica Miller got the scoring started for NYU, giving the Violets an early 2-0 lead with her layup 19 seconds into the opening period.
 
Just over a minute later, Alexis Sestric got the Yellowjackets on the board with a pair of free throws, but with an early 6-0 run, NYU would open up an early six-point lead.
 
Callie McCulley pulled UR within four, 8-4, with 7:18 to play in the first, before a 10-2 run of their own gave Rochester its first lead of the afternoon, 16-15, over the 8th-ranked Violets.
 
Sestric got the run going with three free throws after drawing a foul on her three-point attempt, while Katie Titus capped off the run with a layup from McCulley, giving UR a one-point lead with 3:42 to play in the first.
 
However, over the next eight minutes, the final 3:42 of the first quarter and the first 4:34 of the second, Rochester would shoot just 2-for-12 from the field, as the Violets went on a 23-5 run to take the lead.
 
NYU ended the first quarter on a 12-3 run, with the Violets hitting all five of their field goals over that stretch to take a 27-19 lead at the quarter break, before an 11-2 run to open the second quarter gave the Violets a 17-point, 38-21 lead with 5:26 to play until the half.
 
Sestric slowed the Violets' roll with a pair of free throws, getting Rochester back on the scoreboard after a nearly four-minute scoreless stretch, but layups by Jenny Walker and Honor Culpepper extended NYU's lead to 19 with 3:46 left in the first half.
 
Abby Gress and Titus closed the quarter with four points, cutting the halftime deficit to 17, 44-27 before Rochester made a run to begin the third.
 
McCulley got the second half started going 1-for-2 at the free throw line, before a pair of Titus' three-pointers and layups from Kelsey Stites cut NYU's lead to 11, 49-38, with 6:32 to play in the third.
 
And though NYU missed three-straight buckets on the other end, Rochester turned it over twice and couldn't pull any closer, before Erica Miller nailed a three to put NYU back up by 14.
 
McCulley answered with a layup to bring the deficit back to 12, but five-straight from the Violets made it a 17-point game, and eventually a 17-point, 64-47 lead for NYU at the end of the third.
 
McCulley, who scored a career-high 19 points, scored UR's first five points of the final period, before Haley Dumiak sank a triple, again pulling UR within 12, but that'd be as close as Rochester would get the rest of the way.
 
The Violets shot 8-for-10 from the free throw line in the fourth, eventually sealing the 80-67 victory.
 
The 7th-ranked Yellowjackets fall to 13-3 (3-2 UAA) with the loss, while 8th-ranked NYU moves to 13-2 (3-2 UAA) with the win.
 
McCulley led Rochester with a career-high 19 points, adding a team-high 10 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the year. Titus and Sestric joined McCulley in double figures with 13 and 12 points apiece, while Stites tallied a team-high four assists.
 
As a team, UR shot 41.4 percent, compared to 46.3 percent for NYU, but on 11 more field-goal attempts as the Violets' hot start, 63.2 percent shooting in the first quarter, proved to be too much to overcome.
 
The Yellowjackets will look to bounce back when they return to the friendly confines of the Louis Alexander Palestra on Friday, Jan. 27 against Washington University in St. Louis at 5:30 p.m.