The St. John Fisher College women's lacrosse program won its fourth consecutive Empire 8 Conference Championship, as the Cardinals defeated Ithaca College 10-5 on Sunday in the title game.  

With the win, Fisher improves to 14-5 overall and earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship.   The Cardinals, led by fourth-year head coach Linda Michele, will play over the weekend in NCAA action.   Pairings for the national tournament will be announced late Sunday night.

Senior Lindsey Shoales was named as the Championship's Most Valuable Player.  After leading Fisher with five draw controls in Saturday's 10-7 win over Stevens Institute of Technology on Saturday, Shoales led her squad with four ground balls in Sunday's victory over Ithaca. 

Joining Shoales on the All-Tournament team include Samantha Barton, Sierra Badger, Jordan Johnson and Kristina Lombard.

Fisher never trailed in the game, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first 1:53 of the game on goals from Johnson and Erin Ward.

Johnson, Ward and Badger scored the next three goals for Fisher, pushing the Cardinals' lead to 5-1 midway through the first half, but the Bombers rallied and pulled to within two goals at 5-3 at the half.

Fisher scored the first two goals of the second half with Chrissy Cook tallying her 18^th goal of the year five minutes into the second half.  Cook assisted on the game's next goal with Badger scoring her 36^th goal of the year, pushing Fisher's lead to 7-3.  Ithaca again answered with two goals to make it a two-goal game 16 minutes left, but didn't find the back of the net after that.

Johnson scored her third goal of the game off a nice pass from Kennedy Frink with just over eight minutes left.   Ward and Barton each scored a goal in the final 90 seconds to seal the win.

Johnson and Ward each finished with three goals, while Badger, Frink and Cook each totaled two points.  Badger and Barton each won two draw controls.

Junior goalie Nicole Hart made three saves in the game, including two in the second half.