EWING, N.J. – For the 12^th time in program history, the TCNJ softball team has won the NJAC Championship. The 14^th-ranked Lions swept Kean in the conference championship series by final scores of 1-0 and 6-1 on Friday.

With the conference title, the Lions have earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. The brackets will be revealed in a selection show on NCAA.com on Monday afternoon.

TCNJ has now won 12 games in a row and nine consecutive NJAC Tournament games dating back to 2019. The title also gives the Lions back-to-back conference championships, as the Lions won the last NJAC title in 2019.

"This tournament is one of the hardest tournaments to play in every year," TCNJ head coach Sally Miller said. "The NJAC tournament is completely different than the regular season. Winning this tournament was a big goal for us, and I think these were some of the best games I've been involved with in the last four or five years. They were tough games, and it's been such a tough year, and that's why it's so emotional right now, as it's been a tough year for everybody. It was very hard, but our team stuck with it and kept going. I give credit to our team because we stayed really focused in a difficult situation and a difficult year."

Game One:
Game one was a tight pitcher's duel that remained scoreless all the way until the bottom of the sixth inning. Jaclyn Carifi led off with a single through the right side. After she advanced to second on a groundout, Lauren Conroy delivered the clutch hit. Conroy launched a double into the left center gap, and Carifi motored around third to score to break the scoring and give TCNJ a 1-0 lead.

TCNJ starting pitcher Eliza Sweet threw 6.1 scoreless innings, yet the Cougars mounted a threat in the top of the seventh. Alanna Namit entered in relief of Sweet, and slammed the door to lock up the game-one victory. She forced a groundout, then ended the game with a swinging strikeout.

Sweet bumped her record to 9-2 with the win and struck out six batters while walking zero. The Cougars had an opportunity in the fourth with two on and one out. Sweet got out of trouble with two straight looking strikeouts.

Game Two:
Much like game one, game two was scoreless until the Lions broke through, this time in the fifth inning. Kaci Neveling led off with a walk then stole second base. Katie Winchock came through with the big hit to end the scoreless tie, as she singled to center to score Neveling. A couple of batters later, Elyse Nardozza laced a base hit up the middle to make it a 2-0 ballgame and score Winchock.

Namit kept the Cougar offense at bay, and allowed her only run of the game in the seventh inning. The Lions blew the game open with four runs in the sixth. Neveling started the scoring by knocking a run in with a single, then Winchock drove in another with an RBI groundout.

The next batter was Allie Immerso, who kept the scoring going with an RBI sacrifice fly. Conroy then ripped a triple to right center and scored with another RBI from Nardozza.

Namit struck out six batters, only walked one, and only allowed two hits. She improved to 10-1 this year with the complete game victory.

The Lions will find out their NCAA destination on Monday. Check back on tcnjathletics.com and NCAA.com on Monday afternoon for more tournament information.