GLASSBORO, N.J. – The No. 18 TCNJ women's lacrosse team proved its mettle with a resounding, come-from-behind victory at No. 17 Rowan on Saturday, clinching the NJAC regular-season championship with a 14-7 triumph.
 
Marissa Lucca's latest massive effort saw the senior star produce seven goals and three points for the Lions (14-2, 5-0), who notched a signature victory over a top-10 NPI team and clinched the top seed in next week's NJAC Tournament in one fell swoop. The blue and gold will host fourth-seeded Montclair State in a semifinal on Wednesday.
 
TCNJ needed a rally after a first quarter in which the Profs (13-3, 4-1) led 3-1 and were 5-for-5 on draw controls. Up stepped Lucca and the defense.
 
The Lions kept Rowan off the scoreboard for the next 36 minutes and change, rattling off 11 unanswered goals over that span to flip the game on its head and stun the home faithful.
 
Lucca started the tidal shift with a goal 50 seconds into the second quarter, then set up one of two consecutive goals by CJ Kole, who put TCNJ ahead for good at 4-3 with 6:15 to go in the second period.
 
The visitors piled on before halftime, with Lucca scoring goals exactly a minute apart before assisting on one by Abbie Teefy just over a minute after that, and suddenly a 3-1 deficit at the start of the second quarter had become a 7-3 lead by the end of it.
 
It only got better from there. Teefy tallied another goal on an assist from Lucca to open the second-half scoring, and Lucca put up two more of her own before Kelly Nevins' free-position marker in the closing seconds of the third ballooned the lead all the way out to 11-3.
 
Nevins scored again at the 11:50 mark of the fourth quarter, the last of the Lions' 11 unanswered tallies before Rowan finally ended their extended scoring drought 14 seconds later.
 
The Profs got as close as 12-6, but Lucca had two more goals left in her, sandwiched around one by the home side, as TCNJ left South Jersey with a massive result.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Rowan finished with a 26-20 edge in shots, but TCNJ fired off 18 to the Profs' 17 over the final three quarters
• The Profs also held a 13-9 advantage on the draw and in turnovers (19 to the Lions' 22)
• TCNJ scooped up 16 ground balls and had 11 caused turnovers

STANDOUT LIONS

• Lucca put up double-digits in points for the fourth game in a row and fifth in her last six; she also had three caused turnovers
• Kole had a hat-trick with three goals, including 2-for-3 on free-position opportunities, and led TCNJ with five draw controls
• Nevins and Teefy netted two goals apiece
• Emily Potenza had a team-high four ground balls to go with two caused turnovers
• Abby Williams matched Lucca with three caused turnovers and added three grounders
• Hailey Wexler finished with six saves

NOTES

• TCNJ is now 60-1 all-time against Rowan
• Lucca became the fifth player in program history to surpass 300 career points, and just the third to go over 100 points in two different seasons, joining Leigh Mitchell '12 and Ali Jaeger '11 
• Lucca is now 4^th all-time in assists (109) and 9^th in goals (193)
• Kole moved into the all-time top-20 in draw controls (114)
• Potenza went over 100 ground balls for her career, and her 67 caused turnovers are tied for 11^th in program history
• Williams joined Elizabeth Morrison as the only players in program history with at least 50 caused turnovers in a single season; Morrison had three such years
• Thanks in large part to Williams, the Lions have already racked up 229 caused turnovers this season; that's the 2nd-highest single-season total in team history, trailing only the 331 from 2018

UP NEXT

• The Lions host Montclair State on Wednesday at 4 p.m.