With the season coming to a close on Wednesday, April 24, Hamilton’s Women’s Lacrosse team vied to finish the season above .500 and maintain their seed in the NESCAC Championship standings.

The Continentals’ season has had highs and lows. They have finished the year so far with a 7–6 record overall, a 5–5 in-conference record, a solid 5–2 home record, and a disappointing 2–4 away record. The Continentals started the season with a three-game win streak, winning by an average of five goals. They beat Bates in their season opener 14–10, fueled by an 11-goal streak early in the first half. Maddigan Leifer ’26 and Sarah Creamer ’26 scored three goals each, leading the Continentals to a dominating first three quarters of the game, where they entered the fourth up 14–5. They let up five goals late, but the Continentals were still able to hang on to a comfortable lead by the end of the game. They continued winning with victories over Amherst and then St. John Fisher, where they took control of both games in their final three quarters, allowing just four goals and scoring fifteen total goals in those two stretches in both games.

However, beginning with a 21–9 loss to Tufts, the Continentals dropped four consecutive games, allowing 64 total goals in the four-game stretch. Their loss to Bowdoin, the fourth game of the stretch, dropped the Continentals to 2–3 in in-conference matchups. But Hamilton bounced back against Trinity in a 9–8 comeback win to get back to .500. Trailing by three heading into the fourth quarter, the Continentals went on a three-goal run until finally, first-year Julia Lee ’27 took the lead for Hamilton with a 15-foot goal with just 16.8 seconds left in the game. Riding the high of the win over Trinity, the Continentals defeated Williams 12–7, led by Alex Orlando’s ’25 four goals and nine saves by first-year Eliza Schwarz ’27.

The Continentals were unable to continue their streak though, and dropped two more games to Wesleyan and Middlebury in two in-conference matchups. Hamilton started slowly in their game against Wesleyan, allowing five straight goals in the first quarter until finally scoring two of their own to end the first. Hamilton first-year attacker Sydney Anzelone ’27 found the back of the net with seconds to spare at the end of the third quarter to cut the deficit to 10–7 but were unable to get any closer in the fourth quarter, where they allowed four more goals from Wesleyan while going scoreless themselves. Captain Meghan Lane ’24 forced a career-high nine turnovers, allowing the Continentals to stay within striking distance throughout much of the game, though they were unable to stage the comeback. Hamilton then lost again to the number one seeded Middlebury Panthers 10–18, despite a three-goal game from Leifer.

The Continentals bounced back once again with a dominating 16–6 victory against the University of Rochester, led by Attacker Aine Cleary ’25, who scored four goals and reached a career milestone of 100 total points. The Continentals scored the first three goals of the game and were able to maintain their lead throughout. They followed up their victory against Rochester with a 10–9 win against Connecticut College on Senior Day. The game came down to the wire, ending with a game-winning goal by Lee with 1:22 left in the fourth quarter. Lee recorded a career-high five goals, fueling the Continentals’ offense to advance to a 7–6 record.

While their season has had very little consistency in terms of winning, the Continentals are still in a position to make a run in the NESCAC playoffs if they can take advantage of the momentum of their recent wins and potentially a win against Ithaca College in the season finale.