ITHACA, N.Y. – The nationally ranked No. 3 Ithaca College women's lacrosse team posted a convincing 22-10 victory over RPI on Saturday at Higgins Stadium in what was both teams' Liberty League openers. Ithaca is now 5-0 on the season, while RPI drops to 3-2.

Ithaca utilized a late second half run – 11-1 over the final 25 minutes – to blow the game open and the Bombers capitalized all afternoon on free position opportunities, scoring on 7-of-10 chances.

It was a tough first quarter for both programs to get anything going offensively, as Ithaca led, 2-1, after 15 minutes of action. RPI scored the first goal of the contest, but the Bombers answered with goals from Madison Boutureira and Alexa Ritchie after the final four minutes.

IC found its stride in the second quarter and built an 8-2 lead with just 3:18 remaining in the half. After RPI knotted the contest at 2-2, IC ran off the next six goals. Maizy Veitch started the run by putting home her own rebound at the 12:55 mark and then Megan Motkowski, who finished the game with five goals and one assist, followed with a goal off a pass from Caroline Wise with 11:00 left.

Wise then earned a free position and make the most of her chance with 10:22 to play, giving IC a 5-2 advantage. The lead grew to 6-2 as Elizabeth Green found Ritchie, who also scored five goals with an assist, in transition with 5:26 left and then Green scored her lone goal of the contest just under two minutes later. The run was capped off by another goal from Veitch at the 3:18 mark.

The Engineers regrouped and scored three goals in less than a minute to trim its deficit down to 8-5 with 1:33 to go until halftime, but the Bombers had the final say as Motkowski struck with :27 remaining and then Sydney Phillips cashed in on a free position with :09 on the clock to give the Bombers a 10-5 lead heading into intermission.

IC added another goal to begin the third quarter as Boutureira scored just 1:26 into the period, but RPI once again made things interesting with a four-goal run to pull back to within two goals at 11-9 with 10:09 left in the quarter.

From there, it was all IC as the Bombers closed out the quarter on a 5-0 run and then scored five more in the fourth to establish a 20-9 advantage with 6:03 left in the contest.

During the five-goal stretch in the third quarter, Ritchie scored twice, while Wise, Motkowski and Veitch accounted for the other three goals. Three of those came on free positions and the second goal from Ritchie beat RPI's goalie on an underhand, backhand flip as time expired. Motkowski would assist on the Veitch goal, while Rosenberg connected with Ritchie on the highlight reel tally.

In the fourth, Motkowski and Ritchie scored on free positions early on. The 10-goal difference was met with 8:37 to go as Boutureira took a pass from Ritchie and then the run came to an emphatic close as Motkowski distributed a feed from Wise to give IC an 11-goal edge.

RPI ended the run with 4:28 to play, but the Bombers would score the final two goals of the contest as Wise and Maddie Hall registered goals in the final three minutes of action.

Lexi Held notched her fifth win of the year in 48:06 of action with five saves, while Kayla Howley stopped one shot over the final 11-plus minutes of play.

Ithaca is on the road for its next three games and returns to Higgins Stadium on April 2 against Union at 12 p.m.