Rochester, N.Y. - The Ithaca women's lacrosse team (9-5, 7-1 Empire 8) scored four straight goals in the closing minutes of the second half, but fell 12-11 to host Nazareth (9-5, 5-2 Empire 8) Saturday afternoon.

Nazareth took a 12-7 lead with 6:28 remaining in the game, the largest lead by either side all afternoon, before Ithaca began its comeback.

Junior Katie Hurley (Honeoye Falls-Lima/Honeoye Falls) started the comeback with back-to-back goals just 23 seconds apart. Senior Kylie McClure (Upper Arlington/Columbus, Ohio) scored with 2:27 remaining to pull the Bombers to within two, and then freshman Tracy Rivas (East Meadow/East Meadow) scored 12 seconds later to reduce the margin to one. The Bombers picked up a ground ball with just over a minute to play and had possession with a chance to tie, but a shot was saved by the Nazareth goalkeeper.

Hurley led Ithaca with four goals in the game. McClure and Rivas each scored three times. Junior Ali DeCirce (Binghamton/Binghamton) had the other Ithaca goal and sophomore Nicole Borisenok (Albany Academy/Watervliet) had the only assist of the game for Ithaca.

Ithaca senior goalkeeper Courtney Dowell (Massapequa/Massapequa) made five saves.

The Bombers finished conference play tied for first place with Stevens, with a 7-1 record in Empire 8 play. Ithaca defeated Stevens during the regular season and will be the top overall seed for the Empire 8 tournament. Prior to that, Ithaca has one more regular-season game Tuesday at Rochester at  4 p.m.

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