POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -  The Vassar women's lacrosse team played nearly to perfection for senior day on Saturday afternoon, defeating No. 19 Ithaca 15-14.
 
Four Brewers recorded hat tricks with Fiona MacLeod (Garden City, NY), Tessa Waters (Skokie, IL), Haydn Hallman (Bechtelsville, PA) and Caeli Porette (Stony Point, NY) Freshman Melanie Silverman (Southbury, CT) seemed to help everyone scoring, dishing out five assists on the day.
 
MacLeod scored 40 seconds into the game off a Kelly Pushie (Mahwah, NJ) to give an early Brewers' lead. The Bombers and Brewers then traded goals until 14:20 when Vassar netted two unanswered from Porette and Alessandra Fable (Orlando, FL). Playing behind 5-3, Ithaca responded with three straight from Katie Welch, Allie Panara and Jacqui Hallack to take their first lead. Porette then netted the final goal of the half to tie it 6-6 going into the break.
 
Momentum was on the Brewers side to start the second, with Hallman, Pushie and MacLeod each finding net in the first eight minutes. Feeling the pressure, the Bombers fought back with a 4-0 from 12:43 to 8:33 to go up 13-12. Waters tabbed a goal following an Ithaca green card, but the Bombers answered soon after to hold the slight lead.
 
At 3:37, MacLeod scored to even the game 14-14. Not wanting a second overtime game in a row, some late heroics from Hallman secured the Vassar win.
 
Hallman finished with a career-high three goals. Pushie had three points on two goals and one assist. Sydney Nemphos (Baltimore, MD) led the team with five groundballs and also had one caused turnover. Porette had a team-high nine draw controls. Freshman Jackie Molloy (Buffalo Grove, IL) made six saves as the Brewers' starting goalkeeper.
 
Vassar is back home Tuesday to face Bard at 6 p.m. at Weinberg Field.