Grantham, PA… Messiah College withstood a furious rally by The College of New Jersey women's lacrosse team and then scored a late goal to come away with a 12-11 win over the sixth-ranked Lions on Saturday.
 
TCNJ was faced with a six-goal deficit midway into the second half, but stormed back to tie the game. The Falcons then received a late goal from Claire Stikeleather with 3:17 left.
 
The hosts then survived the final 1:32 when senior Ava Fitzgerald (Merrick, NY/Calhoun) pinged a shot off of the post, while keeper Alexa Dipeso made a pair of saves on two other scoring bids.
 
Those late defensive plays were needed by the Falcons (3-3) as the Lions (2-1) dominated the scoreboard in the final 15 minutes of the game. Faced with an 11-5 deficit, TCNJ got rolling with a goal from senior Kendal Borup (Plainsboro, NJ/West Windsor-Plainsboro South) with 13:45 left in the period.
 
Junior Cortney Natalicchio (New Egypt, NJ/New Egypt) scored just 52 seconds later and it took less than a minute to get another goal when Fitzgerald tallied. Her goal came 47 seconds later and cut the difference to 11-8.
 
The string of goals continued for the Lions with Borup and Natalicchio each scoring to make it a one-goal game with 8:29 left in regulation. They completed the rally when Borup picked up her fourth goal of the game with 6:43 remaining.
 
Messiah then scored the only goal in the final minutes to come away with the win.
 
The Lions started fast getting a pair of goals in the first 3:17 of the contest. Borup opened with 2:18 expired off of the clock and just 59 seconds later set up classmate Soraya Selamie (South Brunswick, NJ/Rutgers Prep) for her first goal of the season.
 
Messiah then scored five straight goals before Fitzgerald stopped that run with 13:01 showing on the clock. After another Falcon goal, Natalicchio cut the difference to 6-4, but the hosts added two more goal before the break for a four-goal lead.
 
In addition to Borup's four goals, Fitzgerald and Natalicchio each scored three times.

Freshman Elizabeth Morrison (Stonington, CT/Stonington) led all players with seven ground balls and also caused three turnovers.
 
Goalkeeper Kelly Schlupp (Holland, PA/Council Rock South) finished with a season-high seven saves.