Ewing, NJ. … The College of New Jersey women's soccer team opened its New Jersey Athletic Conference schedule in style with a dominant 7-0 victory over William Paterson University.
 
Junior Hannah Richman (Egg Harbor Twp, NJ/Egg Harbor) netted a pair of goals and four different players (including three freshmen) entered the scoring column. Junior Elizabeth Thoresen (Colts Neck, NJ/Red Bank Catholic), freshman Alexa Pestritto (Lumberton, NJ/Rancocas Valley), junior Abigail Emmert (Pipesville, PA/Central Bucks East), freshmen Haley Bodden (Princeton, NJ/Princeton) and Alexa Beatty (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill East) all found the back of the net in the win.
 
Rookie Despina Lianidis (Lindwood, NJ/Mainland Regional) contributed a pair of assists in the victory, giving the freshman class a total of eight points in their first conference match. Senior Jessica Weeder (Lebanon, NJ/Rancocas Valley) combined freshman Nicole DiPasquale (Paramus, NJ/Paramus) to post the shutout in goal.
 
The Lions (3-0-1) used three first-half goals to take command. Freshman Joriam Rivera (Brick, NJ/Brick Memorial) sent a pass to Thoresen, who received and quickly turned past her mark. She split two defenders to get inside the box and drilled a shot in the left pocket to give TCNJ a 1-0 lead.
 
Richman followed with her first goal of the season less than 15 minutes later. Liandis flicked a header off of a throw-in and Richman raced down the left side and finished to make it a two-goal advantage. In the 41^st minutes, Petritto bent a high corner from the left side that sailed over the outstretched hands of WPU keeper Angela Sandelli and into the goal. A defender cleared it, but the official ruled the ball was over the line.
 
Play was settled in the first 20 minutes of the second period, but TCNJ finished with an offensive flourish. Thoresen was brought down from behind going in on goal and the Lions were awarded a penalty kick. Emmert scored on the PK to make it 4-0. Bodden netted her first collegiate goal minutes later before Richman took a feed from the end-line from Liandis and hit a one-timer for her second goal of the contest. Beatty capped the scoring with her first career goal, blasting a shot from 30 yards out into the top right corner.
 
WPU (4-1-1) suffered its first defeat of the season. Sandelli finished with 10 saves in the game.
 
The Lions return to the pitch on Wednesday when they take on FDU-Florham in a non-conference match scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Lions Stadium.