Bombers to Vie for Fifth Empire 8 Title, Ithaca Stuns Nazareth 15-4 in Semifinals
Hoboken, N.J. – The third-seeded Ithaca women’s lacrosse team (11-5) held second-seeded and 23rd-ranked Nazareth (11-5) scoreless in the first half of its Empire 8 semifinal contest propelling the Bombers to a commanding 15-4 victory at Stevens Institute of Technology. Ithaca will vie for its fifth conference title as they play top-seeded and 10th-ranked Stevens on Sunday, May 8 at 1 p.m. for the right to the Empire 8’s automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Women’s Lacrosse Championship Tournament.
Ithaca, who is playing in the conference tournament for the seventh time in its nine year lifespan, held Nazareth to just its second scoreless half of the season. The Bombers netted 10 unanswered scores in the first frame for a dominating double-digit gap at intermission. After increasing the Golden Flyers’ deficit to 12, Nazareth broke its scoring drought at 21:31 of the second before Ithaca rattled off another two consecutive. The Golden Flyers managed three of the game’s final four scores to cut the difference to 15-4 as time expired.
Junior Nicole Borisenok (Albany Academy for Girls/Watervliet) notched a game-high four goals, while sophomore Tracy Rivas (East Meadow/East Meadow) added three. Senior Katie Hurley (Honeoye Falls-Lima/Honeoye Falls), and sophomores Nikki Dahl (The Wellington School/Columbus, Ohio) and Kim Armbruster (Montville/Boonton, N.J.) also added a pair of scores each.
Sophomore Jess Worthman (Hauppauge/Commack) improved to 11-5 in goal making six saves against the Golden Flyers.
Sophomore Michelle Avery (Brien McMahon/Norwalk, Conn.) opened all scoring 3:41 into the contest with an unassisted Ithaca goal before Rivas found the back of the net one minute later. Hurley tallied her first just 25 seconds after Rivas for an early 3-0 lead. Nearly eight scoreless minutes would pass before Hurley stuck again. Borisenok scored at 15:24 before Dahl put away a free position shot at 14:46 for a 6-0 lead.
The squads would again battle through six scoreless minutes of action before senior Ali DeCirce (Binghamton/Binghamton) found the crosse of Borisenok for a Bomber goal at the nine-minute mark. Rivas and Borisenok recorded back-to-back goals for a 9-0 lead, with Borisenok feeding Dahl for a score to shut out the Golden Flyers in the first stanza, 10-0.
Armbruster continued the Bombers’ dominance with a goal at 28:15 which DeCirce backed at 22:40 for a 12-0 advantage. Nazareth managed a score one minute later, but Rivas and Borisenok answered with two of their own to improve the lead to 14-1. Nazareth scored three of the game’s final four goals, broken up by Dahl assisting Armbruster for a goal at 9:33, to finalize all scoring at 15-4.
Ithaca outshot Nazareth, 31-14 and won 16 of the 21 draw controls contested. The Golden Flyers edged Ithaca, scooping up 11 ground balls to the Bombers’ 10.
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