The networks were stretched as discussed in Sec. 2.4, and the same damage metrics were tracked. Networks with larger holes took longer for the first bond to break as seen in Fig. , and suffered less damage both in absolute terms (number of molecules) and in relative terms (fraction of molecules) as time went on as shown in Fig. . This is because the presence of the hole provides space for the rest of the network to deform into when stretched or compressed. Without this space to accommodate deformation, the network must rupture. The importance is space to accommodate deformation is demonstrated by the bonds on the edge of the hole being damaged less than bonds in the bulk of the network, away from the hole -this is shown in Fig. for damage trajectories averaged over 20 simulations of a size 5 hole.