WATERVILLE, Maine -- The Bates women's lacrosse team will play in the NESCAC Championship semifinals for the first time in the tournament's 16-year history, after the Bobcats defeated Colby 9-3 Saturday in the conference quarterfinals.

Bates' first-ever NESCAC tournament victory avenges Wednesday's 8-6 home loss to the Mules, which gave Colby the fourth seed and relegated Bates to the fifth seed. The two rivals are tied at No. 10 in the Division III rankings and sport identical records at 12-4 apiece.

The 2016 Bobcats now have more victories to their credit than any other season in their 42-year history, save for the 1992 ECAC champion team that went 14-2.

Bates will play at top-seeded Trinity in the first semifinal game next Saturday at noon. The winner will face the winner between second seed Middlebury and third seed Amherst in Sunday's championship game at Trinity. Bates lost 6-5 at Trinity, an NCAA finalist for each of the past four seasons, on March 19 in their previous meeting this season.

Senior All-America attacker Moriah Greenstein (Glenmont, N.Y.), held without a goal on Wednesday, led the Bobcats with three goals and two assists while sophomore Allison Dewey (Vergennes, Vt.) scored two, senior Alex Briody (North Kingstown, R.I.) added a goal and two assists and senior Emma Brinkman (Rye, N.Y.) contributed a goal and an assist.

Senior two-time All-America goalkeeper Hannah Jeffrey (Greenwich, Conn.) and Bates' veteran defense had an outstanding game, holding the Mules to 16 shot attempts and 13 shots on goal, with Jeffrey making 10 saves. The Division III leader in save percentage entering the game, at .598, Jeffrey achieved a .769 save percentage on the day, her best statistical outing since Bates' March 5 shutout over Wesleyan.

Abby Hooper gave Colby the game's first lead 9 1/2 minutes into the game on an assist from Lexie Perticone. But 2 1/2 minutes later, following a Colby yellow card, Briody's free-position shot tied the game at 1-1, and less than a minute later Dewey scored on an assist from Greenstein for a 2-1 Bates lead. 

The Bobcats went on to score five unanswered while holding Colby scoreless for a span of 25 minutes, with Greenstein scoring the first two goals of the second half for a 5-1 advantage.

Colby nudged back into the game with two straight, as Perticone scored form Hooper at 25:32 and Kendall Smith converted a Sasha Fritts assist to make it 5-3 wiht 18:47 to go.

Sophomore Camille Belletete (Jaffrey, N.H.) ended the brief run and restored Bates' three-goal advantage 80 seconds later, taking a feed from Greenstein to make it 6-3. 

Jeffrey made three outstanding saves in a row for Bates to preserve the three-goal lead, and Bates ran off three more goals over a broken Colby side in the final 8:12. Brinkman scored from Briody to make it 7-3 with 8:12 to go, Greenstein scored her second free-position goal of the game with 4:26 to go and Dewey added her second tally on Brinkman's assist with 2:52 left in the game.

Perticone and Hooper had a goal and an assist apiece for the Mules. Burch made seven saves.