GRANTHAM, Pa. – The No. 4 TCNJ field hockey team dropped a tightly-played game at No. 7 Messiah on Saturday afternoon, 2-1. Messiah scored twice in the second quarter and held off the Lions in the fourth to get the win.
 
Ashlyn Smith and Jennie Young scored those two goals for Messiah in the second quarter, just short of six minutes apart. The two goals were half of Messiah's shots in the first half, and it didn't register a shot in the second half.
 
The Lions outshot Messiah, 4-0, in the second half and 3-0 in the fourth period. The Lions used a penalty corner to set up their goal. Kileigh Pfluger's shot was saved, but it also resulted in a penalty stroke for TCNJ. Jess Hatch took the stroke and scored to cut the TCNJ deficit to 2-1 with 7:10 remaining.
 
The Lions got one more penalty corner with six minutes to play, but the resulting shot went wide.
 
Kayla Cichlar's two shots led the team on the day. The loss is TCNJ's first in the regular season since Oct. 16, 2018.
 
TCNJ returns to action at home on Tuesday against Ursinus at 4 p.m.