EWING, N.J. – The No. 16 TCNJ women's lacrosse team finished on a run of 11 unanswered goals in Wednesday's NJAC semifinal, motoring past Montclair State and into the conference championship game with a convincing 17-3 victory.
The No. 1 seed Lions (15-2) will host No. 2 seed Rowan – a last-second, 12-11 winner over Stockton in the other semifinal – on Saturday with the NJAC title on the line for the fifth year in a row.
Marissa Lucca racked up six assists to go with a hat-trick, while
Kelly Nevins netted five goals and
CJ Kole added four while the defense conspired to keep the Red Hawks scoreless for the last 38 minutes of game time.
The first half was defined by quick-strike goals, both coming in short succession after draws and after each other.
Nevins opened the floodgates with the game's first goal, which was followed in just 50 seconds by
Abbie Teefy on a feed from Lucca.
The Red Hawks (6-8) briefly got back within one with their first marker of the day, only for Lucca to control the ensuing draw and race up field before finding
Evie Campbell for the first of two first-half strikes for the rookie.
The Lions began to gain separation with a sequence of two goals in just nine seconds, with Nevins converting a free-position opportunity before Teefy collected the subsequent draw and fed Kole in front of the cage for a 5-1 lead at the 6:20 mark of the frame.
Lucca logged her first goal of the day about six minutes into the second stanza to make it 6-2, which Montclair countered a minute later to pull as close as 6-3. The Red Hawks never scored again.
TCNJ, however, spread out the margin going into halftime thanks to an eight-meter conversion from Campbell and another goal off the stick of Kole, who found space by the crease and finished off a precision pass from Lucca to make it 8-3 with 1:54 before the break.
Lucca and Kole scored twice apiece in the third quarter, including a highlight-reel effort from Lucca in which she snared a Kole pass and deftly fired a backhanded flip into the back of the cage to make it 10-3 at the 8:32 mark. Kole's free-position goal on the woman-up advantage started the running clock at 13-3 with 3:35 to go, and then it was just a matter of setting the final margin.
The Lions landed on 17-3, getting two goals each from Nevins and Teefy in the fourth quarter, including a goal in which the ball ricocheted off an unwitting Teefy's stick and rolled across the line for an unorthodox goal.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- TCNJ outshot the Red Hawks, 33-12
- Montclair committed 24 turnovers – 18 caused by the Lions – to just 16 for the blue and gold
- TCNJ was a near-perfect 15-of-16 on clears, while the Red Hawks coughed it up on a third of their 21 attempts
- TCNJ held a sizeable 23-10 surplus in ground balls and an 11-10 edge in draw controls
STANDOUT LIONS
- Lucca logged her second-highest assist total of the season and led all players with six draw controls; her streak of double-digit points ended narrowly at four games
- Kole's six points were her most since March 7
- Nevins notched her fifth game with five goals or more
- Teefy tallied three goals and an assist while Campbell coupled two goals with one helper to go along with three caused turnovers on the ride
- Ashly Herlihy (four ground balls, three caused turnovers) and Abby Williams (four grounders, two caused turnovers) led the defense
- Wexler made four saves and pitched a second-half shutout
NOTES
- Lucca moved into 3rd on the all-time assist list with 115 and counting, and her 118 points this spring are good for 3rd-most in a single season
- Kole took over sole possession of 12th on the all-time charts with 67 assists
- Potenza (68, 11th) and Herlihy (64, 15th) are now both in the top-15 all-time for caused turnovers
- TCNJ has won nine games by at least 10 goals, including in five of six games with NJAC opponents
- The Lions are 10-1 at home this season
UP NEXT
- TCNJ tangles with Rowan in another NJAC championship rematch
