Ithaca’s Shea Baker wins national title with Boston College

The college women’s lacrosse season came to an end last month, and the lone team left standing featured one outstanding Ithaca High School alum.

On May 26, Shea Baker helped Boston College win the national championship in a 14-13 thriller over Northwestern. It was the Eagles’ second-ever national title and their first since 2021. Baker reflected on helping make history in just her second year on the team.

“It’s hard to describe the feeling when the final buzzer went off,” Baker said. “It’s just an amazing experience with 35 of my best friends. It’s something I will never ever forget. I’m so grateful that we were on the good side of the outcome in that game.”

Baker mentions the ‘good side of the outcome’ because that wasn’t the case last year, falling to Northwestern 18-6 in the national championship. That defeat undoubtedly  acted as motivation when they crossed paths again in North Carolina with another title on the line.

“I think the difference between last year and this year was last year we wanted to win but we didn’t make it happen,” Baker said. “This year, we went into the game knowing it was gonna be a lot harder. You can’t just want to win. You have to really execute. But with this team and the transfers that we had this year, the focus, [and] the experience, we were held to such a higher standard. The feeling was really great going into that game. After the first quarter, I was a little bit scared, but I just knew that we had to break their momentum and we would be fine.”

The first quarter did not go to plan for Baker and the Eagles, as they fell behind 6-0. Fear that the game would get out of hand like last year could have easily crept in. But this was a different Eagles’ team, one that was hungry to exact their revenge on the Wildcats. Baker gave insight on how they adjusted defensively.

“The first quarter just felt so disjointed,” Baker said. “We were working so hard, but we were just not executing the game plan. We weren’t communicating. Our defensive unit is a bunch of confident, powerful problem solvers, so we knew we needed to change something. We switched up the matchups a little bit and fixed our sliding packages so that we weren’t leaving girls wide open on the backside. [We] also emphasized not getting fouls because free positions and eight-meters killed us in that first quarter.”

Baker started the season as a two-way midfielder but took on more defensive duties as the campaign progressed. Backing her up in goal is her fellow sophomore, Shea Dolce. The netminder was instrumental in their national title run, making 12 saves in the semifinal against Syracuse and a stunning kick save in the final minute of the championship to seal the deal. It’s safe to say Baker is grateful to have her fellow Shea in between the pipes.

“It’s so awesome,” Baker said. “I’ve never played with a goalie like her. She directs the defense. She makes the stops she needs to make. We do our best to keep the girls down the alley and give her the shots that she wants to see. She’s one of my best friends. That camaraderie is unmatched. It makes me so confident.

Baker’s national triumph is the crowning achievement of what has been a remarkable year for Little Red alums in the college lacrosse scene. Her former teammates Zoe Congdon (Binghamton University) and Maddie Hall (Ithaca College) helped their respective programs win conference championships. Those triumphs were also present for the boys lacrosse alums, as Colin Blakeslee (St. John Fisher), Zachary Neely (RPI), and Trevor Bollinger (SUNY Geneseo) all captured conference titles. While there have been plenty of successful seasons for the Little Red in the college scene, this year takes the cake.

“It just really speaks to the culture of Ithaca athletics in general—the youth programs, the lacrosse coaches that devote so many hours to teaching those young kids how to play at Ithaca Youth Bureau or just behind the high school,” Baker said. “It just speaks to how powerful that is and how many kids are inspired by all these alums that have led the way for us.”

For Baker, the Eagles’ soar to another national championship boiled down to one indispensable trait: Love.

“Our team loves each other through and through, no matter what,” Baker said. “Down 6-0, up 6-0, we’re always going to be the first to put our arms around each other and say, ‘Get the next one.’ I just think playing with that love for each other overpowers any sort of hatred or bad blood between us and other teams. You know that when nothing else is going right, you can look to your left and your right and know that those girls have your back.”