The Ithaca College women’s lacrosse team held off a second-half rally from the Clarkson University Golden Knights on March 25, earning a 15–10 victory to extend its win streak to three.
The first quarter went back and forth between the squads. Junior attacker Chloe Nordyke scored the first goal of the contest two minutes in, but the Golden Knights evened it up 90 seconds later.
Junior attacker Maizy Veitch, who tied her career-high in goals scored with six on the day, put her first shot in the back of the net to take a 2–1 lead, but, again, Clarkson tied the game up just two minutes after.
However, the Bombers then began to pull away, putting away three more shots before the end of the frame. Less than 15 seconds into the second quarter, junior midfielder Lexi Kellish took the draw control and scored to make the game 6–2 Bombers. Three of Veitch’s goals came in the second quarter, along with two from junior midfielder Syndey Phillips, to give the Bombers an 11–5 lead going into the half.
The Bombers were completely dominant in the first half, outshooting the Golden Knights 25–13. Junior goalkeeper Lexi Held also earned four saves, all in the first quarter, to help the South Hill squad gain its commanding lead.
The second half, though, was a different story for both teams. The Golden Knights came out firing, winning the opening draw control and putting a ball past Held to cut the lead down to five. Sophomore attacker Maddie Hall answered for the Bombers, bringing the lead back up to six under a minute later, but Clarkson would then score three more goals in the next six minutes to make the game 12–9.
However, the Bomber defense held strong and limited the Golden Knights to just one goal over the final 21 minutes of the game, taking the victory to improve to 4–0 in the conference this season.
Sophomore Bomber midfielder Elizabeth Green, who tallied three shots and two ground balls in the game, said it was good to get momentum back after two early losses to SUNY Cortland and Amherst College. Despite the slow start in the game, Green said the team had the right mentality to push through and take the win.
“It’s just [about] staying in it, not getting down and remembering that we’re in this game,” Green said. “We’ve just got to stick with it, just keep going.”
The Bombers are back in action at noon April 1 as they travel to Schenectady to face Union College in the first of four consecutive road games.
