Highlights

ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 21 ranked Ithaca College women's lacrosse team earned their 11th win of the season on Wednesday evening when the Bombers kicked off its final two-game homestand of the regular-season against NESCAC foe Hamilton. The Bombers outlasted the Continentals in a wild thriller that featured several twists and turns down the stretch, besting the visitors by a 14-13 final margin sun-splashed Higgins Stadium. The win improves IC's record to 11-5 on the season.
 
Hamilton had an edge over Ithaca in the first half outscoring Ithaca 8-7, but the bombers bounced back in the second half and outscored the Continentals 7-5. The contest featured four different ties and was evenly matched throughout the entire evening.
 
Leading the way for Ithaca was senior attacker Elizabeth Rice who had a part in nearly half of the Bombers' goals on the afternoon. She finished the day with six scores, her fourth straight game registering four-or-more in a game. The performance put Rice at a team leading 49 goals on the season.
 
Ithaca also saw a strong performance from sophomore midfielder Jacqui Hallack, who scored three goals in the second half to bring her total to 37 on the year. Junior attacker Bailey Herr registered a goal and an assist to climb to 69 points on the year, within three points of tying her previous career high for single-season points. Senior attacker Allie Panara, as well as sophomores Megan Motkowski, Indira Varma and Madison Boutureira each finished with one goal apiece. For Panara, the point brought her into a tie with Ally Runyon '17 for the program-record in career scoring with 252 points.
 
Defensively, Ithaca had a strong afternoon and locked in over the final 100-seconds of the game with a tenacious final stand to clinch the victory. Sophomore Molly Nodiff led the Bombers with three caused turnovers and four ground-balls. Senior Reid Simoncini posted two caused turnovers and two ground-balls, as well as a team best eight draw controls on the day. Sophomore Caroline Paquin and Hallack each notched two caused turnovers, while Paquin marked four ground-balls and Hallack corralled two grounders. Senior Erin McGee added one caused turnover and one ground-ball.
 
In goal, sophomore Mackenzie Schade finished with seven saves, several of which were crucial down the stretch. The win improved her mark to 11-5 as starter this season.
 
The Continentals tested the Bomber defense and came out firing with five goals in the first eight-plus minutes of play. The first came 5:36 into the contest, as Tessa Ryan got the Continentals on the board first with an unassisted goal from the left side of the cage. Over the next minute and a half, Hamilton got two more goals from Kara Pooley and Sarah Moore to go up 3-0.
 
The Bombers finally got on the board 7:38 into the contest thanks to senior Lizzy Rice's 44th goal of the season, but the Continentals answered back 33-seconds later when Charlotte Wynn fired in her free position shot past sophomore goalkeeper Mackenzie Shade. Following the goal, Ithaca took a timeout to regroup, and it paid off. Just a minute after the timeout, senior captain Allie Panara scored a goal for the Bombers to make it 5-2 with just over 20-minutes left in the first half.
 
For the next five minutes Ithaca played strong defense to keep the Continentals off the board. Two additional scoring strikes from Rice at the 14:29 and 17:14 mark brought the Bombers back within a goal, forcing Hamilton to take a timeout of their own.
 
Coming out of their timeout, Skyler Simson scored a couple of tic-tac-toe flashy goals on back-to-back Hamilton possessions to put the visitors back up 7-4 with 10:48 left in the first half. The Bombers responded with a goal from sophomore Indira Varma, as well as Rice's fourth goal of the afternoon to closed the margin back to 7-6 with 6:25 left to go until halftime.
 
The two sides traded goals one more time over the final minutes of the half. Charlotte Wynn re-upped the two-goal lead for the Continentals with her second goal of the day to make it 8-6 with 4:30 left in the first half. IC capitalized with an opportune chance in the final two-minutes. With 1:47 left in the first half, Hamilton goalkeeper Hannah Burrall was issued a yellow card because of her follow through on a clear attempt, which put sophomore Madison Boutureira on the eight-meter arc with an empty cage. Boutureira scored her free position shot into the vacant net to pull the Bombers within one.
 
It did not take long for Ithaca to get the attack going when play resumed for the second half. Just 12-seconds into the frame, sophomore Jacqui Hallack headed towards the cage with a full head of steam and fired one into the back of the net to tie the game at 8-8. After Hamilton's Lauren Hamilton and Ithaca's Megan Motkowski exchanged goals, the speedy Hallack again used her pace to create a goal-scoring opportunity. She registered her second goal of the day to put the Bombers up 10-9, and give the hosts their first lead of the day 2:26 into the second half.
 
Tessa Ryan answered for the Continentals with her second goal of the day to tie the score for the third time on the evening at 10-10. Five minutes later, Ithaca regained the lead thanks to Rice's fifth goal of the day. Following Rice's goal Hallack got her third goal of the day to put the Bombers up 12-10 with 19-minutes remaining.
 
With 17:48 left in the second half, Tessa Ryan earned a hat trick to pull the Continentals within one. Four minutes later, junior Bailey Herr got her 38th goal of the season for the Bombers to go up 13-11 with 13:57 to go.
 
Hamilton responded with a goal from Honor Gabriel to pull back within a score with 9:59 left in regulation. A few minutes later, Panara was hit with her second yellow card violation of the day on the ensuing Hamilton clear attempt, leaving the Bombers without one of their most dynamic attackers for the duration of the contest.
 
The final sequence of the game was wild. Ithaca looked to have scored a goal to go-ahead by a pair when Rice rifled a shot that went bar-down off the crossbar, before kicking back out of the cage into the field of play. After a lengthy discussion between the three field officials, it appeared that a goal would be awarded as the ref checked Rice's stick. However, another stoppage and a conversation between both coaches led to the apparent goal being waved off and possession given back to the Continentals. It was the second time an apparent IC goal had been taken off the board in the second half, as Motkowski also had an apparent free-position score waved off for a crease violation earlier in the frame. The Continentals used the turn of fortune to their advantage, racing down the field and netting a woman-down equalizer from Tatiana Bradley.
 
The turn of fortune did not come back to bite the Bombers, as IC maintained composure and came up with a big defensive stand on the ensuring Hamilton possession. Simoncini forced a turnover and IC capitalized on the other end. With under two-minutes remaining in the game, Rice scored her sixth goal, which was upheld to put IC back in front 14-13.
 
Hamilton had one last possession to try to send it to overtime, but Olivia Seymour's shot went high above the cage. With time ticking away on the reset, Molly Nodiff forced a big turnover and IC was able to bleed out the remaining clock to see out the big non-league victory.
 
Ithaca will be back in action on Saturday, April 27, when RIT comes to Higgins Stadium for the regular-season finale. Start time for the contest has been pushed up to 12:00 p.m. as part of a doubleheader of lacrosse action at Higgins Stadium, as the IC Men play host to No. 19 St. Lawrence in a Liberty League Quarterfinal at 4:00 p.m. The IC Women will honor the seven members of their senior class in a pre-game ceremony.