ITHACA, N.Y. – The top-seeded Ithaca College field hockey team scored late goals to rally past No. 4 seed University of Rochester for a 2-1 victory in double overtime on Tuesday, November 3 at Higgins Stadium. With the Liberty League semifinal win, the 14-4 Bombers have now penciled themselves into the conference championship game this Saturday against Vassar College. The triumph also marks head coach
Kaitlyn Wahila's 100th career win (46th victory as Ithaca's head coach).
It was a firework show on the South Hill with both teams combining for 23 total shots in the contest. The Bombers boasted a 9-to-6 advantage in the shots-on-goal department, which set the stage for their success on Tuesday night. Ithaca paired this standout work with a gritty performance on the back end, as the defensive unit peppered the Yellowjackets and limited them to just three shot attempts from the fourth quarter and through the overtime periods.
Headlining the offense was first-year Natalie Descalso. The San Carlos, Calif. native continued to flash her offensive prowess, culminating a team-high three shots-on-goal and recording the game-winning score in the second overtime period with 5:24 remaining. Descalso took a quick poke check from Morgan Mullen to gain possession in the middle of the circle and sent a diving forehand strike past Rochester's goalkeeper to move the Bombers to its first conference title game since 2015, when the Bombers were a member of the Empire 8 Conference.
Mullen recorded her team-high eighth goal of the season off a penalty stroke late in regulation. With just under seven minutes left in the contest, the Bombers earned a corner. Jacqueline Mirabile inserted the corner to Descalso, whose shot was blocked. Amberly Christiansen then followed up with a shot, which went down as a defensive save, but Rochester was whistled for a foul on the goal line and Ithaca knotted the game on the stroke from Mullen.
In the cage, goalkeeper Macy Brandwein made five saves and helped spur the Bombers to victory.
The Bombers couldn't get anything cooking in the opening quarter, evident by no shots-on-goal and just a single shot attempt.
Rochester set the tone in the early stages of action by breaking things open and tallying the game's first goal at the 9:41 mark. Off the insert, Amanda Strenk fielded the penalty corner and rocketed a shot from the middle of the circle that evaded Brandwein and landed in the back-right corner of the cage to make it a 1-0 game.
The Ithaca offense slowly came to life with the unit threatening several times in Rochester territory for the bulk of the second quarter.
With 3:30 remaining in the second stanza, Brianna Lennon shuffled the ball along to the right wing of the post, where Horowitz was stationed. The Longmeadow, Mass. product then slapped a shot to the center of the net before the Yellowjackets goalkeeper stopped the scoring opportunity.
With twenty seconds to go in the first half, Horowitz grounded a pass from the left of the scoring arc in open field and tapped a cross-cage shot that sailed inches to the right of the goal post and rolled out of bounds.
Rochester's stingy shutdown defense continued to falter the Bombers attack in the third quarter with Ithaca mustering just two shot attempts through the 15-minute period.
Ithaca was a different animal in the final quarter, however, as Mullen provided a much-needed jolt to the Bombers offense in the final moments. Ithaca outshot Rochester, 4-to-1, over the final 15 minutes of regulation.
The Bombers took that momentum into the first overtime period and largely controlled the majority of play, but was unable to end the contest after 10 additional minutes.
Rochester gave the Bombers defense a scare two minutes into double overtime after drawing a penalty corner. Yellowjackets midfielder Julia McDonough retrieved the insert and launched a chip shot that was well-defended by Brandwein as she kicked the ball out of play.
With 5:24 to go, Ithaca stormed into Rochester territory and dialed up the play of the year. Mullen evaded a defender and whipped a hard pass into the lane of Descalso, who nailed a shot into the back-left corner of the cage to seal the wild home victory.
Ithaca College will look to complete its quest for its first Liberty League title in school history on Saturday, November 6 when the team squares off against No. 2 Vassar College, which shutout No. 3 St. Lawrence, 4-0, in the other semifinal game, at Higgins Stadium. Game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.