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| All-Americans
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The Bombers started their winning ways in 1966, the program’s first season. The team compiled winning records during its first nine years of varsity play under coaches Iris Carnell, Jean Lewis and Doris Kostrinsky. Kostrinsky, who along with Carnell is a member of the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame, coached Ithaca for six years. The Bombers posted a 43-16 record and won the 1974 New York State Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (NYSAIAW) championship during Kostrinsky’s career. Her 1973-74 team won all six regular-season games, won three straight in the NYSAIAW tournament at Brockport, and earned an Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (EAIAW) playoff victory over Vermont before losing to Southern Connecticut. The team finished 11-1 and posted the program’s highest winning percentage (.917). Reba Nash was one of many stellar performers who played for Kostrinsky. Nash averaged 8.5 points and 14 rebounds a game with the state championship team and a season later contributed 15.4 points and 12.4 rebounds per game.
Mary Connolly took over as coach in 1975, and after her teams flirted with the .500 level for two seasons, she directed the Bombers to a 14-3 record and an EAIAW tournament appearance in 1977-78.
Natalie Smith’s teams compiled an 87-64 record and five postseason trips in seven seasons. Highlighting that period was the play of Faith Colter, the school’s all-time leading scorer and second-ranked rebounder. The program’s first 1,000-point scorer, Colter still holds 20 school records. Her career averages of 21.4 points and 11.5 rebounds per game have not been approached. Colter scored a school-record 37 points in a 1981 victory over Bloomsburg, and less than a month later set another record with 28 rebounds in a game against St. John Fisher. In 1988 Colter became the program’s first inductee to the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame.
Jeanne Johnston and Tracy Olson were the team’s top players from 1981 to 1984. They both rank among Ithaca’s career leaders in scoring and rebounding.
Christine Pritchard took over as coach in the 1985-86 season. She compiled a 209-145 record in her 13 seasons, including the last 11 seasons without a losing record and Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) playoff bids in 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995 and 1998. The Bombers won the ECAC title in 1993 and 1998.
A number of celebrated performers emerged during Pritchard’s career. Guard Val Gazda graduated in 1986 with a number of school assist and free-throw shooting records. Forward Lauri Hancock capped off her career in 1990 as the school’s top rebounder (886) and second-leading scorer (1,295 points). Guard Roxane Aguilar, also a 1990 graduate, set the school records for assists in a season (128 in 1989-90) and career (425). She was Ithaca’s third-leading scorer (915 points) at the time of her graduation and set a school record with 200 career steals.
Guard Lisa Tibbles had a productive two-year stay at Ithaca after transferring from Jefferson Community College. She averaged 4.1 steals a game in her career and broke Aguilar’s career record in that category, collecting 203 steals in just 50 games from 1990 to 1992. Tibbles set a school record with 13 steals in a 1991 game against Nazareth.
The women’s basketball program joined the Independent College Athletic Conference (ICAC) prior to the 1988-89 season. Now known as the Empire 8, the league is one of Division III’s strongest. The Bombers have been perennial contenders for the conference championship, winning five titles and finishing second four times. The league owns an automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs, which Ithaca claimed in 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2004.
The 1992-93 season was one of the most successful for Ithaca. It marked the senior seasons for Karen Fischer and Tiffany Shaffer, the first two Bombers to play 100 games. The pair helped lead the Bombers to the NYSWCAA championship held at Ithaca’s Ben Light Gymnasium. The Bombers beat St. John Fisher, 59-49, to win the title. One weekend later Ithaca put the finishing touches on its record-setting season with the ECAC crown, beating host Binghamton, 52-51, in the final. The ECAC championship capped a second consecutive 20-win season for the Bombers.
Fischer became Ithaca’s third 1,000-point scorer and completed her career third in scoring (1,078) and fifth in rebounding (552). Shaffer followed Fischer as the second Bomber ranked in the school’s top 10 in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals.
Ithaca native MaLisa Sears, an ECAC all-star, scored 16.2 points per game—the second-highest mark since Colter graduated—for the 1993-94 team. In 1994-95 the Bombers earned a spot in the NYSWCAA and ECAC tournaments, led by Kerrin Perniciaro, a two-time second-team all-EAA election who finished her career fourth in points, eighth in rebounds and assists, and tied for 10th in steals.
A season later Ithaca returned to the state tournament. The next year the Bombers won their first EAA title to earn the program’s initial NCAA playoff berth. Ithaca upset third-seeded Binghamton to advance to the second round before bowing to William Smith.
In 1997-98 the Bombers won a school-record 22 games on their way to NYSWCAA and ECAC titles. Forward Margo McGowan was the EAA Player of the Year that season. A two-time conference all-star, she set a school record with 354 career steals (eighth in NCAA Division III) and is the program’s fourth-leading scorer (1,200 points).
In her only season as Ithaca’s head coach, Jen Kroll led the 1999-2000 team to a share of the Empire 8 championship and a pair of postseason titles—the NYSWCAA and ECAC championships.
The past six years have seen five 20-win seasons, four Empire 8 titles, two more state championships, five trips to the NCAA playoffs and the program’s first appearance in the “sweet 16”, all under head coach Dan Raymond. Point guard Kerri Brown, a four-time Empire 8 all-star, received Ithaca’s Iris Carnell Award as the top female athlete in the class of 2003. She ranks among the program’s career leaders in points, assists, steals, rebounds and three-point baskets. Guard Jennie Swatling, a 2004 graduate, set school records for free-throw percentage and ranks third in career scoring, steals and three-point baskets.
In 2005, Stephanie Cleary became the program's first all-American, earning second-team honors after setting school records for single-season and career points, career steals and single-season and career three-point baskets.
The Bombers returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2007 after defeating top-seeded Elmira College in the championship game of the Empire 8 Tournament.