EWING, N.J. – The No. 16 TCNJ women's lacrosse team rode a red-hot start and a huge game from senior star Marissa Lucca to a 12-8 season-opening victory over visiting Catholic on Saturday.
 
Lucca racked up six goals and three assists on the day, more than half of that production coming in a first-quarter frenzy that gave the Lions more than enough breathing room to clip the Cardinals.
 
The senior's fifth goal – a woman-up strike early in the third quarter – marked the 200^th point of her career.
 
CJ Kole added four goals for TCNJ, while Evie Campbell (goal) and Jules Bade (assist) collected their first collegiate points.
 
After Lucca split three Catholic defenders and ripped a left-handed shot into the top right corner of the netting, the Lions were off and running.
 
Less than a minute later, Lucca found Campbell all alone in front of the cage, and the rookie deftly faked high and shot low for her first career goal. Lucca struck again a mere 16 seconds later, driving into the scoring area herself and pin-pointing a low shot into the corner of the net for a 3-0 lead.
 
Kole got in on the fun a little over 30 seconds after that, finding space in the middle of the Catholic defense and bouncing a low shot past Alexandra Ragano on a nice feed from Kelly Nevins.
 
Catholic (0-2) got on the board at the 10:11 mark, but TCNJ had two more goals still to come in the opening frame. Lucca had a hand in both, assisting Kole before snatching a high pass from Emily Potenza and quickly lasering another shot into the back of the cage to finish off a first-quarter hat-trick with 3:34 still left in the first frame.
 
The game was mostly a stalemate from there, the Cardinals thrice getting as close as three but never threatening beyond that. Lucca scored with 36 seconds left in the half to give TCNJ an 8-4 lead, and her 200^th career point came 2:22 into the third when Bade found her wide open near the right post for a quick finish.
 
Lucca finished her scoring outburst in the final minute of the third quarter, but found another assist early in the fourth as Abbie Teefy fired home a woman-up goal to make it 12-6. The Cardinals scored the final two goals but were unable to get any closer.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• TCNJ outshot the Cardinals, 25-21, including a 12-2 advantage in the first quarter
• Catholic committed 29 turnovers to 21 for the Lions, who forced seven turnovers on clea attempts
• TCNJ had a slim 21-20 edge in ground balls
• Catholic dominated the draw circle, winning 16 of 22 draws overall and 13-of-14 in the final three periods
• The Lions were just 1-of-9 on free-position attempts, many of which were saved by Ragano
• The game was a card-fest, featuring 20 total cards; 15 of those were against Catholic

FOR THE FOES

• Henley Bredemann had three goals and four draw controls
• Maggie Traynor racked up four ground balls and two caused turnovers in addition to a goal and an assist
• Olivia Daniels had seven draws, six ground balls, and five caused turnovers
• Ragano had 10 saves

STANDOUT LIONS

• Lucca scored her six goals on seven shots, also adding four ground balls
• Kole stuffed the stat sheet with four caused turnovers, four ground balls, and two draws in addition to her four goals
• Rookie Abby Williams and Kate Martinek each caused three turnovers, while Potenza and Maria LaPietra had two each
• Hailey Wexler finished with eight saves

NOTES

• Lucca became the 23^rd player in program history to eclipse 200 career points
• Wexler, a starter after four seasons as a reserve, made her third career start between the pipes
• Evie Campbell and Williams cracked the starting lineup in their collegiate debuts

UP NEXT

• The Lions head to Moravian on March 4