Box Score (TCNJ 12-3 CM)
Box Score (Union 13-12 Cortland State)
Ewing NJ…The College of New Jersey and Union College (NY) will meet for the first time in women's lacrosse as both teams advanced to the regional championship in the 2008 NCAA Division III Tournament with wins on Saturday.
TCNJ (16-1) won the opening game at TCNJ's Soccer Complex with a 12-3 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CA), before Union College (15-3) held off a late charge from SUNY Cortland to pull out a 13-12 victory over the Red Dragons.
The regional championship is slated for Sunday, May 11 at 1 p.m.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps capped its successful season at 13-3, while the Red Dragons finished their season at 14-6.
#2 TCNJ 12, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 3
TCNJ's top-ranked defense held the Athenas to only one goal over the final 45 minutes as the game as the Lions advanced to the regional finals for the 24th consecutive year.
The teams battled to a 2-2 tie as TCNJ netted the first two goals off of the sticks of Leigh Mitchell (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) and Katie Reuther (Toms River, NJ/Toms River North), while the CMS got goals from Kristen Steenerson (Atlanta, GA/Lovett School) and Courtney Cronin (Madison, CT/Daniel Hand).
TCNJ broke that tie as Mitchell netted her second of the game on a feed from Lisa Seldeen (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Valley). That goal came with 12:45 remaining before the intermission.
The Lion tacked on three more goals before the break to carry a 7-2 advantage into the half.
In the second half, Alison Jaeger (Hampton, North Hunterdon) made it 8-3 for the Lions, but the Athenas got the goal right back as Colbi Brawner (Bainbridge Island, WA/Bainbridge).
TCNJ's defense then took over keeping CMS off of the board the final 23:41 and the Lions scored the game's final four goals to advance to the regional final.
Mitchell paced the Lions with three goals and one assist, while Reuther and Jaeger each scored twice and assisted on another.
CMS's Katya Strohl (Oak Park, IL/River Forest) had a huge game finishing with 16 saves, while senior Caitlin Gregory (Winslow, NJ/Eastern) made seven for her 16th victory of the season.
#8 Union College 13, #18 SUNY Cortland 12
The Dutchwomen never trailed in the second half, but had to fight off a late Cortland charge with the Red Dragons having a chance to tie the game in the final seconds. That chance came as Red Dragon Elizabeth Acee (Syracuse, NY/Henninger) fired a shot just wide as the horn sounded.
The game was close from the start with Union getting the early jump scoring the game's first three goals. Keri Messa (Saratoga Springs, NY/Hotchkiss School) accounted for two of those, with Kristin Joyce (Longmeadow, MA/Longmeadow) scoring the other.
Cortland got things going scoring five of the next six goals to take its first lead at 5-4 with five different players scoring.
The teams were tied two more times in the half with the Dutchwomen taking the lead for good as Messa and Emily Bryson (Charlestown, MA/Gov. Dummer) netted back-to-back goals to break at 6-6 ties.
The Red Dragons crept to within one goal by the half as Danielle Torre (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) scored with 1:41 left in the period.
In the second half, Union's Chelsea Charlette (South Hadley, MA/South Hadley) scored consecutive goals pushing the advantage to 10-7.
Cortland chipped away to make it a one-goal game at 10-9, but Union again scored consecutive goals pushing the margin back to three.
Union later led 13-11 on a goal by Messa, but the Red Dragons scored on a free-position shot by Jessie Fritz (Baldwinsville, NJ/C.W. Baker) with 3:40 setting up the exciting finish.
Messa lead the Dutchwomen with four goals and two assists, with Charlette also scoring four times and assisting once.
For the Red Dragons, Fritz netted four goals and Torre added three.
Union goalie Cat Ruggiero (Huntington, NJ/Huntington) finished with eight saves, while Cortland's Deanne Abell (Fulton, NY/G. Ray Bodley) collected seven.
This was the second meeting between the two schools, with Union winning the season-opener on its home field, 9-8.
