Hartford, CT… The College of New Jersey women's lacrosse team gave top-ranked and undefeated Trinity (CT) College all they could handle, but in the end, the Bantams came away with a 12-7 win over the Lions on Sunday and punch their ticket to the national semifinals.
 
Trinity's (20-0) bid to defend their 2012 national title continues next weekend as the NCAA Division III Tournament shifts to Owings Mills, MD where they will face SUNY Cortland in the semis.
 
The loss capped another solid season for the Lions as they finished with a record of 15-5 and were making their 29^th straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
The teams went toe-to-toe in the first half as they alternated in scoring the first 10 goals of the game. TCNJ scored first 2:23 into the contest on a free-position goal by sophomore Kendal Borup (Plainsboro, NJ/West Windsor-Plainsboro South).
 
That string of trading goals stopped when the Bantams tied the game at 5-5 as they then added two more to grab a 7-5 lead. That sixth goal came with 11:01 left in the half and marked the first time the hosts held a lead.
 
Freshman Cortney Natalicchio (New Egypt, NJ/New Egypt) added another goal before the end of the half for TCNJ, but Trinity was able to maintain the lead with an 8-6 advantage at the break.
 
The Bantams scored 1:13 into the new half on a goal by Caroline Hayes and exactly four minutes later Shea Kusiak tallied pushing the difference to 10-6.
 
Natalicchio made it 10-7 on a feed from Borup and that goal came while the Lions had a man-up advantage. That marker came with 15:20 left.
 
That turned out to be the only goal allowed by the Bantams in the second half and they added two more scores to make the final 12-7.
 
Borup finished with two goals and an assist, while Natalicchio also tallied two. TCNJ also got goals from senior Jillian Nealon (Whitehouse Station, NJ/Hunterdon Central), junior Jen Garavente (Monroe Twp., NJ/Monroe Twp.), and junior Lauren Pigott (Jobstown, NJ/Northern Burlington).
 
Sophomore Lauren Karpovich (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) led all players in the game with four draw controls.
 
Junior goalie Kelsey Zinck (Bristow, VA/James W. Robinson) had seven saves for the Lions.