ITHACA, N.Y.--The Bombers will open the Empire 8 Championship Tournament on Saturday as the field's top-seeded team. Ithaca (10-5, 7-1 Empire 8) will play fourth-seeded Nazareth at noon on Carp Wood field. The game will be available through Live Stats and will also be broadcast by WICB.

Ithaca finished in a tie for first in the Empire 8, losing only to Nazareth in the final conference game of the season. The Bombers were edged 12-11 by the Golden Flyers in that game. Ithaca defeated the other two teams in the tournament during the regular season, beating Rochester Institute of Technology 14-12 and Stevens Institute of Technology 13-11.

The team is led offensively by junior Katie Hurley (Honeoye Falls-Lima/Honeoye Falls), who paces the squad with 37 goals, 15 assists and 52 points on the season. She was named a first-team all-Empire 8 Player. Sophomore Siobhan Sullivan (Franklin/Franklin, Mass.) and freshman Michelle Avery (Brien McMahon/Norwalk, Conn.) joined her on the first team. Sullivan leads the team with 23 draw controls and 16 caused turnovers while adding 22 ground balls. Avery has scored 14 goals with 20 draw controls, 11 ground balls and nine caused turnovers.

Senior Courtney Dowell (Massapequa/Massapequa) has posted a 9-3 record in goal for Ithaca. She has allowed 8.64 goals per game and tallied 81 saves.

As a team, Ithaca ranks second in the Empire 8 in fewest goals allowed per game at 9.07 . The team ranks fourth with 13.05 goals scored per game.

The Bombers have qualified for the Empire 8 Championship Tournament six of the eight years it has been contested. Ithaca has won the Tournament three times: in 2002, 2003 and 2008.