EWING, N.J. – The No. 22 TCNJ women's soccer team opened the 2022 NJAC Tournament as the No. 3 seed, and that meant hosting sixth-seeded Stockton in a Saturday afternoon quarterfinal match at Lions Stadium. The Lions got a first-half goal from Sophie Vieira to win, 1-0.
The Lions controlled play through most of the first half. TCNJ outshot Stockton, 8-1, in the first half and had some great chances. Eight different TCNJ players recorded a shot apiece in the first 45 minutes, and Stockton seemed content to play defense at the expense of its offensive attack.
The Ospreys did have one dangerous attempt in the first half, but Erica Dietz's attempt was cleared out of the goal mouth by the TCNJ defense.
The Lions broke through the Stockton defense for their goal midway through the first half in the 24th minute. Gianna Coppola had a shot and a couple of nice setups in the first half, and one of those led to that TCNJ goal. She passed through the six-yard box from right-to-left to find Vieira, and she chipped the ball over Stockton keeper Morgan Keil off the crossbar and into the net.
The Lions had multiple chances to expand upon its lead. Late in the first half, Ella Van Dine spun and shot and nailed the right post after another pass from Coppola.
Twelve minutes into the second half, Emma Pascarella centered a pass from the right goal line to Coppola, but her shot was stopped by Keil. That marked the first save of the game for either team.
About 10 minutes after that chance, Coppola got off an even better shot. This one from about 25 yards out beat Keil high, but it rammed into the crossbar.
Stockton began to press forward with a bit more success in the final 20 minutes, but the Ospreys couldn't put an above-average chance together until the final three minutes when Logan Shaw had a run down the left side, but Corinne Byrum stood tall and made the save.
With Saturday's win, the Lions will travel to face second-seeded Rowan in the NJAC Tournament semifinals on Wednesday night at 6 p.m.
