EWING, N.J. – Behind a career day from goalkeeper Julia Charest, the No. 13 TCNJ women's lacrosse team clinched the NJAC regular-season championship with a resounding 15-7 victory over No. 23 Rowan on Saturday afternoon.
 
Charest, who was honored alongside fellow fifth-year Ally Tobler as well as Emily Rau and Hailey Wexler on Senior Day, racked up a career-high 18 saves to keep a high-powered Profs attack stuck in neutral to spearhead the most important win of the season to date.
 
With the win, the Lions (12-4, 5-0) secured the top seed and hosting rights for each of their NJAC Tournament games. TCNJ will host fourth-seeded Stockton in a semifinal on Wednesday.

Marissa Lucca (6G/1A), CJ Kole (5G), and Tobler (3G/2A) combined for all but one of TCNJ's goals.
 
Rowan (14-2, 4-1) – ranked 6^th in the NPI – had not been held under 10 goals all season but were flummoxed by Charest's latest gem. The fifth-year was dialed in from the opening draw, racking up seven saves in the second quarter and five more in the fourth, rendering a 36-23 shot advantage for Rowan mostly moot.
 
After trading one goal each, TCNJ quickly settled into a controlling position. Tobler gave the Lions a 2-1 lead with an unassisted tally at the 8:00 mark of the first quarter, an advantage the blue and gold never relinquished.
 
Four minutes later, Kole scored for the first time during a personal run of three goals in just 4:45 of game time, the last completing her hat-trick and extending the Lions' lead to 5-2 in the first minute of the second quarter.
 
Charest's brilliance kept the Profs from getting any closer than 5-3. She stonewalled seven of Rowan's nine shot attempts in the second quarter, allowing the Lions to pull into halftime with a 6-3 lead after Lucca's goal just shy of the midway point of the frame. Three of those seven stops in the final seven minutes and change of the first half came on free-position attempts.
 
Lucca wasted no time putting the Profs in a bigger hole, scoring the first two goals of a 4-0 run for TCNJ coming out of intermission. The second was a particularly impressive play, with Tobler stripping a Rowan player in the deep corner and racing toward the cage before firing a pass to Lucca, who quick-sticked the ball past Rowan goalie Mel Rodgers for an 8-3 lead.
 
That was the first of three markers in less than two minutes, one from Tobler and another out of the stick of Kole.
 
Kole's next goal – off a feed from Gabriella Roosa – made it 11-4 early in the fourth quarter before Rowan got back in it with back-to-back goals to trim the margin to 11-6 and force a Lions timeout.
 
The stoppage paid off for TCNJ, which won the ensuing draw and got a quick goal from Lucca to restore a six-goal advantage at 12-6. Lucca logged two more goals, the last coming with 4:09 remaining, for the final score of the day.
 
FOR THE FOES

• Alexis Lowry scored three goals, but no other Prof had more than two points
• Molly Green had four draws, three ground balls, and two caused turnovers

STANDOUT LIONS

• Lucca racked up six goals and an assist
• Kole piled up five goals, while Roosa dished out five assists
• Tobler finished with three goals, two assists, and four draws to go with three ground balls
• Veronica Campbell matched Tobler for the team lead with four draw controls

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Rowan outshot the Lions, 36-23, but TCNJ had a much higher percentage of shots on goal (20/23 to 25/36)
• Rowan had a 21-12 edge in ground balls and committed 14 turnovers to 20 for the Lions, who converted on just 16-of-24 clearing attempts
• The teams were even at 13 in draw controls
• Rowan was 0-for-8 on free-position attempts, thanks to Charest, while TCNJ converted its only eight-meter chance

NOTES

• Charest's 18 saves surpassed her previous career best of 15, accomplished a handful of times over the years
• Tobler now has 293 career goals and is now just three points from second all-time (364)
• Tobler moved into 6^th all-time in draw controls (236) and eclipsed 100 career ground balls
• Tobler became the sixth player in program history with more than 100 draw controls in a single season
• Roosa's five assists gave her 34 for the year, tied for the 10th-highest single-season total in program history

UP NEXT

• The Lions host Stockton in the NJAC semifinals on Wednesday