ITHACA, N.Y. – The 11^th-ranked Ithaca College women's lacrosse team got its 2018 off to a strong start on Saturday afternoon when it welcomed Nazareth College to Higgins Stadium. IC raced out to an early lead and maintained a healthy advantage throughout the afternoon en route to a 14-8 victory.
 
The Bombers got contributions from up and down the lineup, which included several freshmen making their collegiate debuts on Saturday. Six players registered at least one goal, headlined by hat-trick efforts from sophomore Bailey Herr and juniors Elizabeth Rice and Allie Panara. In total, seven Bombers recorded at least one point.
 
Entering the year with sky-high expectations after a breakout sophomore campaign, Panara picked up right where she left off last season. The 2017 IWLCA All-Region Second Teamer led all players with six points, registering three goals and three assists. She went 2-fo-2 in free-position opportunities, while she launched 10 shot attempts, narrowly missing the mark on potentially scoring several more goals on the day. The junior also accounted for one caused turnover and eight draw controls on the day.
 
Herr also was omnipresent in the offensive zone, racking up five points with four goals and one assist. Rice also was frequently firing rubber at the Golden Flyers' cage. She found the back of the net four times on a game-high 12 shot attempts. Each finished with a pair of ground-balls, while Rice added one caused turnover.
 
Freshmen midfielders Rachel Rosenberg and Caroline Grant each had a memorable debut to their respective collegiate careers. Each player netted a goal in the contest. Rosenberg added two ground-balls and four draw controls, while Grant added one ground-ball in the contest.
 
Junior midfielder Erin McGee rounded out IC's goal scoring, finishing off a beautiful give-and-go with Herr for her lone goal of the afternoon. She also terrorized Nazareth throughout the afternoon, forcing a pair of caused turnovers and corralling three ground-balls. Sophomore Katie Welch notched one assist, as well as a caused turnover, ground-ball and draw control win in the contest.
 
Defensively, the Bombers lived up to the billing despite not having returning junior Reid Simoncini available. The IC backline was menacing throughout the day, clamping down on a Nazareth attack that found little room to operate in the attacking third. Ithaca finished with 16 caused turnovers on the day.
 
Leading the way for IC was the senior captain duo of Elizabeth Sauer and Molly Long. Sauer amassed a game-high four caused turnovers and added three ground-balls, while Long finished with two forced turnovers and one ground-ball. Sophomore Becky Mehorter added one caused turnover, while freshman Caroline Paquin held up well in her first collegiate start with three ground-balls. Junior Maeve Cambria also was impressive on the ride, forcing a pair of caused turnovers, as the Bombers held Nazareth to 19-of-25 on clear attempts.
 
Senior captain Kimberly Presuto also picked up where she left off in her return to the Ithaca cage. The 2017 IWLCA All-Region keeper finished with nine saves and one caused turnover in 47:25 of action in recording her first win of the campaign. Freshman Mackenzie Schade played the final 12:35 of the contest.
 
The Bombers set the tone for the afternoon with a quick start behind its returning attacking talents. Ithaca dominated possession over the opening 10 minutes en route to an early 4-0 lead. Rosenberg got the scoring started just 1:13 in, receiving a pin-point feed from Panara that went from left-to-right across the attacking fan to the Rosenberg at the right post. The rookie rifled a shot into the top left corner.
 
Ithaca scored two goals in a 23-second span just over four minutes later. Panara got the spurt started with an unassisted tally, while McGee teamed up with Herr on an excellent give-and-go, sending a shot into the bottom left. The score prompted an early timeout from the visitors.
 
Panara added her second of the game to cap the first 10-minutes of dominance, scoring on IC's first free-position of the afternoon. However, Nazareth responded with two goals to pull back into the contest with half the first half remaining.
 
Ithaca concluded the half on a four-goal run to take a commanding 8-2 advantage to the break. Herr and Rice each tallied back-to-back goals during the run with Herr scoring twice in a 1:16 span to up IC's lead to 6-2, while Rice made a double-dip in a 48-second span with just under four-minutes remaining.
 
Grant stretched Ithaca's lead to seven at 9-2 to begin the second half. She picked up a rebound after Rice's shot was initially saved by Nazareth keeper Brianna Rizzari, quickly flipping a shot into the left side netting of the partially vacated cage.
 
Panara notched her hat-trick with 19:09 to play, scoring on her second free-position shot of the day. After Nazareth got a pair of goals from Katie Carroll to pull back within 10-5, Herr scored twice in a 1:28 span to become the Bombers second player to tally a hat-trick on the day.
 
Rice put the exclamation point on the day with the final two goals of the afternoon to cap the 14-8 win. On the first, she received a pass in the slot, faking to the near post, before taking two quick steps across the face of goal and sliding a low shot inside the left post. Her final goal of the afternoon came after Cambria forced a turnover on a hard ride down the left flank. The ball was scooped up by Rice, who moved in on a two-on-one, before deking the keeper and dumping a shot into the left of the cage.
 
Ithaca returns to action next weekend when it travels for the first of four nationally-ranked battles on the year. The Bombers will take on No. 15 SUNY Brockport in a 1:00 p.m. tilt on Saturday, March 3.