BABSON PARK, Mass.— Babson College gave one of the top-ranked team in Division III all it could handle Wednesday afternoon before No. 3 Ithaca College held on for a 16-14 victory over the Beavers in a non-conference women's lacrosse game at MacDowell Field.

With the outcome, Ithaca remains undefeated at 4-0 on the season while the Beavers suffer their second straight loss to a top-10 opponent and drop to 2-2.

The teams were tied 11-11 late in the third quarter and Babson scored back-to-back goals midway through the fourth quarter to pull to within one goal at 15-14 and had possession with a chance to tie the game with four minutes remaining but could not convert. The Bombers added an insurance goal with just under three minutes to play and held off a Beaver comeback.

Junior Claudia Dodge (Pelham, N.Y.) recorded a career-high seven points for the Beavers with a career-high five goals and two assists, including four goals on free-position shots. She also contributed six ground balls, two draw controls and three caused turnovers. Classmate Erin Jayne (Merrimac, Mass.) added two goals, three assists and three caused turnovers, first-year Cameron Rabenold (Cincinnati, Ohio), playing in her first collegiate game, tallied four points on two goals and two assists, and classmate Michaela Downer (North Andover, Mass.) collected eight draw controls.

Sophomore Maizy Veitch (Sudbury, Mass.) led the Bombers with eight points on five goals and three assists, while graduate student Madison Boutureira (Scarsdale, N.Y.) was good for three goals and two assists and sophomore Caroline Wise (Delmar, N.Y.) collected the goals, an assist and 12 draw controls.

Ithaca came out strong with five goals in the first four minutes of the game, including two by Boutureira, to take a 5-1 lead. Dodge scored three times for Babson in the opening quarter, all on free position shots, and Rabenold's first career goal with two minutes to goal in the stanza brought the Beavers to within three at the end of the quarter, 7-4.

The teams alternated the first four goals in the second quarter, including strikes by Jayne and Rabenold for Babson, and then goals by first-year Amelia Novitch (Dover, Mass.) and Jayne in the last four minutes of the quarter pulled the Beavers to within one goal at halftime, 9-8.

Sophomore Sydney Phillips (South Salem, N.Y.) and Veitch opened the scoring for Ithaca in the third quarter to push the lead back up to three goals, but Babson answered with three consecutive strikes by Dodge, junior Courtney Kaskey (Winnetka, Ill.) and junior Anna Katherine Sypniewski (Vero Beach, Fla.), the last two on feeds by Rabenold, to even the score at 11-all with 3:31 remaining in the third.

The Bombers scored four of the next five goals over the next seven minutes to regain a three-goal advantage, 15-12, with 11 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but Babson would not go away quietly. Sophomore Nicole Darveau (Sudbury, Mass.) and Dodge found the back of the net to slice the deficit to one (15-14) with 6:53 to play, but the Beavers were unable to finish off the comeback and Veitch rounded out the scoring for Ithaca with 2:53 on the clock.

Babson finished with a 17-11 advantage in ground balls while Ithaca had a narrow 29-26 margin in shots.

The Beavers open New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play this Saturday with a visit to Springfield for a 3:30 p.m. contest. Ithaca returns home for its Liberty League debut against Rensselaer at 12 noon.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is now 0-2 all-time against Ithaca in a series that dates back to 2016.
• The Beavers, who entered the game ranked fifth in Division III in free-position percentage (.688), converted 6-of-8 on free-position shots against the Bombers.
• The Green and White has collected at least 10 draw controls in each of its first four games this spring.