ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca women's lacrosse team returns to the NCAA Division III Championship as the Bombers repeated as Liberty League champions on Saturday at Higgins Stadium with a 14-13 victory over Union College. Ithaca is now 13-6 on the season and will find out tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. who and where it will play in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Kelly Augeri, the Liberty League Championship Most Outstanding Performer, scored the game's first goal at the 12:32 mark of the opening quarter on Ithaca's opening possession off a pass from Hayley Armstrong as the shot clock was winding down. Ithaca's lead grew to 2-0 in the first quarter on a free position goal from Lily Cody with 6:43 on the clock.
Union got on the board with 4:52 remaining in the quarter, but Ithaca answered just over a minute later on the second goal of the day from Augeri to regain a two-goal lead at 3-1. The Garnet Chargers made it 3-2 immediately after the Bombers killed a penalty and turned the ball over with less than a minute on the clock
The Garnet Chargers entered the second quarter with an advantage and tied the contest at 3-3 less than a minute in. Augeri notched her hat trick with just over 12 minutes left in the half to put Ithaca back ahead, 4-3, on a free position. A minute later, the Bombers went up on a yellow card and Augeri earned another free position and capitalized to make it 5-3. Ithaca's lead grew to 6-3 on the fifth goal from Augeri off a pass from Hayley Armstrong with 9:30 left, but Union ended the run a minute later.
Elizabeth Green got into the scoring column at the 7:39 mark of the second period for a 7-4 difference. Lexi Kellish then put home a one-timer off a feed from Armstrong a minute later, and just 30 seconds later, Green scored on a free position to push the Bombers' advantage out to five at 9-4, which forced a timeout and goalie change for the Garnet Chargers.
Green tallied a hat trick with 3:49 to go in the half on free position and advantage for the Bombers to make it 10-4. Union ended Ithaca's run with less than 90 seconds to go in the first half and sent the contest into intermission at 10-5. Mikaela Dattilo made a big save in the waning seconds of the half for the Bombers.
That late goal in the second quarter sparked the Garnet Chargers coming out of halftime as they went on a 5-0 run in the third quarter to tie the game with just 31 seconds remaining in the period. The Bombers halted Union's onslaught at the buzzer as Naturale snuck in a goal as time expired to keep Ithaca ahead by one, 11-10.
Ithaca scored two goals early in the fourth quarter to create some breathing room as Green scored in the opening minute and Augeri followed with another free position tally at the 12:15 mark.
A minute later, Union used an Ithaca card to get back on the board, but the Bombers went back up by three goals at 14-11 as Kathryn Scallon took a pass from Cody with 8:33 to play. After six scoreless minutes, the Garnet Chargers made a late push and notched a goal with 2:18 to go and then pulled to within a goal, 14-13, with 31 seconds to play.
Union won the ensuing draw and called a timeout, which was accompanied by an Ithaca green card, but the Garnet Chargers were unable to take a shot over the final 20 seconds.
Cody won 12 draws for the Bombers, while Phoebe Hosford caused three turnovers and scooped up four ground balls. Dattilo made nine saves in 60 minutes of action.