ITHACA, N.Y. - The No. 19 Ithaca College women's lacrosse team defeated No. 24 University of Scranton 17-8 on Wednesday evening at Higgins Stadium. With the win, IC remains perfect on the year at 2-0, while the 24^th-ranked Royals fell to 0-2 to begin the season.
 
Senior attacker Bailey Herr paved the way for the Bombers with seven points, which she got from two goals and five assists on the day. Junior midfielders Indira Varma, Jacqui Hallack and Katie Welch each had four points. Five additional Bombers found the score sheet for IC. Junior attacker Madison Boutureira finished with a multi-point effort, registering one goal and one helper. Juniors Alexa Ritchie, Caroline Grant, Alex Rabb and Megan Motkowski each finished with one goal on the day.

Defensively, it was masterful performance by the Bombers in limiting Scranton's dangerous attack. Junior Molly Nodiff, as well as Motkowski each finished with two caused turnovers, while juniors Rachel Rosenberg, Samantha Marsh and Caroline Paquin each finished with one forced miscue apiece. The sister duo of senior Becky Mehorter and sophomore Kelly Mehorter also locked down the Royals throughout the day, forcing many deep-clock possessions and two clock violations with strong one-on-one marking on the wings.

Junior keeper Mackenzie Schade had a very strong performance in the IC cage. Sharp from the opening whistle on Wednesday, she finished the day with seven quality stops to improve to 2-0 on the year.
 
Scranton's leading scorer was junior attacker Jill Henson, who scored four goals on the day.
 
Both teams traded goals throughout the first half. A large part of Scranton's success was controlling the possession with successful draw controls, which they outnumbered Ithaca in 8-2 through the opening 20-plus minutes of game action. However, the Bombers were efficient in their chances during the opening half. For a second straight outing, the Bombers kept the attack in high gear with a significant shot advantage, while the defense blanketed the Royals, making the visitor's grind for every scoring opportunity.
 
Ithaca got on the board first approximately four minutes into the game when Varma took a pass from senior attacker Bailey Herr and scored. On the next goal, Varma once again took a pass from Herr from behind the net to score her second goal of the day to put Ithaca up 2-0. The lead extended to 3-0 just over a minute later when junior midfielder Alex Rabb received a sharp pass from Welch and converted for her second of the season.
 
Scranton got on the board with 21:34 remaining in the first half when Henson scored on a free position to make Ithaca's lead 3-1. Not even 30 seconds later did Scranton score again, this time by junior midfielder Bridget Lalley, who scored off an assist by first-year attacker Emma Fitzpatrick to cut the lead to 3-2.
 
Junior attacker Madison Boutureira responded quickly for IC as she scored her first goal of the season to put the Bombers up 4-2 with 20:24 remaining.
 
Henson scored her second goal of the day for Scranton with 12:50 remaining to the Ithaca lead 4-3. The Royals then scored to tie the contest at four with a goal by sophomore midfielder Rachel Wells.
 
Ithaca scored three goals in a row to make the score 7-4 with 7:14 remaining. The Bombers first regained the lead with a highlight-reel back-handed snipe into the upper left corner of the cage by junior attacker Alexa Ritchie. Then, the Herr to Varma connection continued to shine in the first half, as Varma scored her third goal of the day from a behind-the-net pass from Herr. Junior midfielder Megan Motkowski capped the run with her first goal of the day off an assist by Boutureira.
 
Scranton sophomore attacker Jennifer Williams scored off an assist by senior midfielder Shannon Warburton to cut the Ithaca lead once again. However, Ithaca responded with two goals to close out the first half. Welch scored her first goal of the day when she ran down the right side, cut to the middle and scored to extend the Ithaca lead. With 26.9 seconds remaining, Herr scored her first goal of the day to make the score 9-5 at the end of the half.
 
The scoring momentum did not slow down for the Bombers over the final 30-minutes, as IC outscored the visitors 8-to-3 after halftime to take firm control of the contest for an impressive early-season win. IC opened up the second half with a goal by junior midfielder Jacqui Hallack to extend the Ithaca lead 10-5. Once again, Varma scored off an assist from Herr, making it the fourth goal the duo scored during the game to make the lead 11-5. Sophomore midfielder Halle Conklin cut the lead to 11-6 when she scored for the Royals with 22:19 remaining in the game.
 
Herr added to her monster game of the day with her fifth assist of the game, which gave junior midfielder Caroline Grant her first goal of the day. Henson scored her third goal of the day for Scranton as the Royals cut the lead to 12-7.
 
The Bombers went on a 5-1 scoring run midway through the second half, which firmly put the game within Ithaca's grasp. IC had goals from Hallack, Herr and two from Welch, while Henson scored her fourth goal of the day for Scranton.
 
Scranton continued to dominate draw controls throughout the second half, as the Royals finished with 17 and the Bombers finished with nine. The Bombers will look to clean up that aspect heading into a brutal road slate that features three more ranked-on-ranked match-ups away from the friendly confines of Higgins Stadium.
 
Ithaca will kick off the road slate on Saturday, February 29, with a 1:00 p.m. tilt at local rival No. 22 SUNY Cortland.