ITHACA, N.Y. – The nationally ranked No. 18 Ithaca College women's lacrosse team remained undefeated in Liberty League play with a dominant wire-to-wire victory over No. 2 William Smith College on Wednesday afternoon at Higgins Stadium. Ithaca is now 10-1 on the season and earned its first win over the Herons since 2021, as William Smith had won 10 of the previous 12 matchups.
IC also dealt William Smith its largest loss since the Herons fell to No. 1 Salisbury, 18-6, on March 22, 2022, which happened to be the last regular season setback for William Smith.
The Bombers jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first quarter and never looked back as IC held a 9-8 edge in shots and won three of four draws.
Sydney Phillips scored the first goal of the game off a pass from
Caroline Wise just over three minutes into the contest.
Juliana Esposito then took a feed from
Lexi Kellish five minutes later for a two-goal lead and Kellish capped off the quarter with a free position goal.
Lexi Held made three saves in the quarter to keep William Smith scoreless.
In the second quarter, IC continued its goal streak will three more to extend its lead to 6-0 before the Herons could find an answer. Wise got the scoring underway off a pass from
Elizabeth Green 10:28 on the clock.
Just over a minute later, Wise found the back of the net again as
Leigh Naturale assisted the score after a loose ball with 9:15 left. Green then scored with 7:56 to go for a six-goal advantage.
William Smith got on the board with 2:46 remaining in the half and cut the spread to 6-2 with 1:26 to go.
Held made a crucial save at the buzzer to end the first half at 6-2.
The second half was dominated by the Bombers with an 8-0 difference in the third quarter to make it 14-2. IC then scored twice more in the fourth quarter to go ahead by 14 goals at 16-2 before William Smith ended the run with 6:21 remaining in the contest.
In the third, Naturale received a pass from Kellish after scooping up a ground ball at the 12:08 mark. The lead grew to 8-2 as William Smith committed a turnover in front of goal and Phillips scooped and scored with 10:51 to go.
Just 41 seconds later,
Maizy Veitch tallied her first of four goals in the game off an assist from Cody to force William Smith to use its final timeout of the game. Veitch put IC ahead by eight goals at 10-2 with a doorstep goal at 8:22 and then Wise won the ensuing draw and found Phillips 11 seconds later.
The Bombers reached the 10-goal spread with 7:42 on the clock as
Chloe Nordyke scored off a free position and then Veitch notched her hat trick with 3:36 to go in the period. Green capped off the eight-goal onslaught with just 16 seconds remaining to send the Bombers into the fourth quarter with a 14-2 advantage.
The lead grew to 15-2 at the 13:20 mark of the fourth as Veitch scooped up a save and put home a point blank shot. IC's final goal of the contest came from Nordyke with 9:48 left in the contest.
William Smith tallied the final goal of the game to account for the 16-3 outcome.
Wise played one of the best games of her career as she finished the day with 17 draw wins and three ground balls, to go along with two goals and two assists, as the Bombers dominated the draw circle, 19-3. Held made nine saves to improve to 10-1 on the season.
Ithaca will host RPI on Saturday, April 13 at 1 p.m.
