GLASSBORO, N.J. – The TCNJ field hockey team's season came to an end at the site of so much recent heartbreak on Saturday, as host Rowan scored with time expired in the third quarter and held off the hard-charging Lions for a 2-1 victory in another nail-biting edition of the NJAC championship game.
The 10
th-ranked Profs (17-4) captured their sixth straight conference crown and prolonged TCNJ's desperate search for a breakthrough in a series that has dealt the Blue & Gold many doses of heartache this decade. Rowan has knocked out the Lions in each of the last five conference finals, and four of them have been decided by a single goal – including last year's 1-0 double-overtime marathon.
Just like the regular-season meeting in Glassboro, one side broke a scoreless deadlock late in the first quarter. This time, it was the Profs jumping on top as Chloe Yoder converted a penalty stroke with 59 seconds to go in the stanza.
Jadyn Huff put a pair of shots on target during a sequence of three consecutive corners midway through the second, but Rowan's Ella Morton was equal to the task and kept the home side in front, 1-0, at intermission.
TCNJ (12-6) upped the pressure late on in the third quarter, earning another trio of corners in succession. The third one was the charm, as
Emma McElroy shuffled Huff's pass through the legs of Morton and into the back of the cage to level the score at 1-1 with 4:45 left.
McElroy forced a save out of Morton 30 seconds later, but it was Rowan dealing the Lions a big blow at the death. The Profs earned a corner with 0.9 seconds showing and managed to cash in with time expired, with Mia Foti dribbling around a defender and lofting a shot over the pad of
Brigitte Racey for a 2-1 lead after three.
TCNJ had five more corners in the final frame but managed just two shots, one of them off-target and the other a
Kendal Justus effort that Morton turned aside with just over a minute to go.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- TCNJ owned a slim edge in both shots (8-7) and shots on goal (5-4)
- The Lions racked up 11 corners to just four for the Profs, inserting eight in the second half alone
- Morton made four saves for Rowan, while Racey had two in the cage for TCNJ
STANDOUT LIONS
- McElroy netted her second goal of the season and fourth of her career
- Huff led the Lions with three shots (two on goal) and dished out her team-high ninth assist
SENIOR SALUTE
- Racey leaves TCNJ ranked third on the all-time charts in starts (70) and saves (339), notching 20 shutouts for her stellar career
- Huff made 60 starts over 70 appearances for her career, racking up 34 goals and 25 assists for 93 points
- Isabel Maher started 68 of her 70 career games, posting 18 goals
- Dhruve, a junior graduating early, started 42 games over her three seasons with the program, registering eight goals and 13 assists
- Justus broke into the starting lineup in her final season, while McElroy played in 46 career games
- Nika Eschmann, a study abroad student from Germany, had eight goals and four assists in her lone campaign with the program
