EWING, N.J. – Ally Tobler and Julia Charest each reached a major milestone and the No. 12 TCNJ women's lacrosse team dominated the bookends of Friday's nationally ranked clash with No. 21 Chicago, starting fast and then pulling away late for a 15-7 victory to conclude a five-game homestand.
 
Tobler scored four goals, the last coming with 59 seconds remaining to give her 300 points for her career, and Charest surpassed 400 career saves with the eighth of her dozen stops to help the Lions (5-1) bounce back from their first defeat of the season and notch their first ranked victory of the season.
 
Amidst the brilliance of its fifth-year standouts, Marissa Lucca put her stamp on the game with six goals and three assists, the last of which set up Tobler's milestone moment.
 
TCNJ started and ended the game on matching runs of five unanswered goals, easily overcoming an evenly matched middle portion of the contest. It took over nine minutes of game time, but Tobler got the scoring started on a feed from CJ Kole at the 5:58 mark, and Lucca sent a shot into the cage 24 seconds later to double the lead.
 
Kole netted a power-play goal at the 2-minute mark to make it 3-0, and a trio of Charest saved kept the Maroons (5-4) off the board in the opening quarter.
 
With the Lions on a two-player advantage, Lucca finished a pass from Kole 21 seconds into the second stanza, and Tobler made it 5-0 with a free-position goal about 90 seconds after that.
 
Chicago broke through after 20 minutes of game time, only for Tobler to answer with an 'Ally-oop' goal, flying in to snare a Lucca pass in mid-air and dunking it home for a 6-1 lead.
 
The Maroons got within 6-3 and had the ball late in the half, but Tobler caused a turnover on a clearing attempt and the ensuing transition opportunity led to a goal by Veronica Campbell to send the Lions into the break on top by four.
 
Once again the Lions struck early in the third, Lucca depositing another goal just 25 seconds after the break. After a Chicago goal, Gabriella Roosa assisted on a Lucca goal before netting one of her own, giving the blue and gold a 10-4 advantage at the 6:06 mark of the period.
 
The Maroons made their last move then, trimming the TCNJ lead down to 10-7 with 11:09 to play, but that was as close as the visitors got. Lucca ended the rally with 9:46 remaining on another assist from Roosa, and those two players traded goals before Tobler hit her milestone, snagging a high pass from Lucca and sending a shot top shelf to make it 14-7. Roosa added one more with 28 ticks left for the final score.
 
FOR THE FOES

• Evelina Swigart and Wynne Boggan each had two goals and an assist, with Boggan adding six draw controls
• Peyton McGuire scored two goals and Avery Song handed out two assists

STANDOUT LIONS

• Lucca scored six goals on eight shots
• Tobler tallied seven draw controls in addition to her four goals
• Roosa finished with three goals and two assists in addition to a team-high four ground balls, while Kole had a goal and two helpers
• Meghan Hogan led the defense with three caused turnovers and two ground balls
• Charest was sensational, stoning 12 of the 19 shots she faced, and many at point-blank range

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• TCNJ had a small edge in both shots (31-26) and draw controls (13-12)
• Both teams had 18 turnovers on a windy afternoon
• Chicago was 0-for-4 on free-position attempts, while the Lions went 2-of-7

NOTES

• Tobler joins Leigh Mitchell (398), Ali Jaeger (364), and Lauren Dougher (317) in the 300-point club at TCNJ
• Tobler surpassed 250 career goals and sits nine away from Jaeger's all-time mark of 261
• Charest joins Gina Carey (640) and Sandy Stockl (566) as Lions goalies with 400-plus career saves; she notched her 51^st career win, one off Mary Waller in third
• This was the first all-time meeting between the programs

UP NEXT

• TCNJ hits the road for a heavyweight clash at No. 4 Gettysburg on Wednesday