EWING, N.J.- The TCNJ women's lacrosse team advanced to the Third Round of the NCAA tournament with a 14-6 win over Messiah University at the TCNJ Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex on Sunday.
The Lions (16-3) held a 26-17 shots advantage over Messiah (16-4).
After going down 2-1 in the first, TCNJ exploded offensively with a 7-2 advantage in the quarter and take an 8-4 lead entering halftime.
Anna Devlin scored twice in less than a minute to retake the lead for the Lions.
Jillian Westerby led the Lions in the first half with three goals and an assist. In the second,
Ally Tobler also had a pair of goals for TCNJ along with
Larissa Hatzold and
Katherine Naiburg dishing out assists.
TCNJ began to extend on their halftime lead immediately in the third as they shut out the Falcons and scored three goals of their own, holding an 11-4 lead going into the final quarter. Tobler, Devlin and
Anna Wright all scored goals for TCNJ as their advantage grew to seven.
The Lions put up a brick wall in the second half on the defensive end, holding the Falcons to just two late goals and quickly denying any scoring opportunities. Making this more impressive is the fact that Messiah averages north of 13 goals a game and scored just five on Sunday afternoon.
In the fourth,
Kira Sides netted her fifth goal of the season on an assist from
Wayden Ay.
Leading the way to the 14-6 victory for the Lions offensively was Devlin, Wright, Tobler and Westerby. The trio of Tobler, Wright and Devlin each had three goals apiece while Westerby led TCNJ on Sunday with four goals.
Goalie
Julia Charest had seven saves on the day and improved as the game went on, only allowing two goals in the second half compared to four in the fist.
Devlin had the most draw controls for the Lions with six while
Sabrina Phillips was second in draw controls with three.
With the Round Two win, the TCNJ lacrosse team will now face off against Colby College in Round Three of the NCAA Regional on Saturday, May 20
th with the time and location of the game still to be determined.
