The College of New Jersey Athletics

EWING, N.J. – CJ Kole, Marissa Lucca, and the TCNJ women's lacrosse team gave déjà vu a decisive denial on Sunday.
 
Kole went off for a career-high seven goals and dished out four assists while Lucca paired five goals with two assists as the No. 14 Lions pulled away from No. 16 Messiah for a commanding 18-11 victory in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on a picture-perfect day at the Lacrosse and Field Hockey Complex.
 
TCNJ (17-2) picked up its first NCAA Tournament victory since 2023, avenging home second-round losses in each of the previous two seasons, and advanced to the third round, where it will take on No. 7 Amherst - an 11-9 winner over Stevens in the second round - next Saturday at a regional pod hosted by No. 1 Middlebury. The top-ranked Panthers will meet Rowan in the other regional semifinal, with the winners to face off on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four. 
 
The Lions got off to a sluggish start with a few uncharacteristic miscues mixed in, and Messiah (15-6) took advantage with a pair of goals in the first five minutes.
 
Down 2-0 already, Hailey Wexler kept the blue and gold close with a pair of close-range saves to prevent the Falcons from flying further ahead.
 
Kole got going from there, netting a free-position goal to get the Lions on the board at the 3:27 mark of the first quarter. Messiah answered with an eight-meter of its own to go back up by two with a little over a minute left in the frame, but Kole ripped the back of the cage again on a feed from Evie Campbell to get the hosts within 3-2 in the closing seconds of the period.
 
The quarter break was just a slight interruption of the Lions' momentum. TCNJ roared out of the stoppage and reeled off five goals in a row – four of them in the first five minutes and change of the stanza – to seize control.
 
After an eight-meter goal by Kelly Nevins, the Lions controlled the ensuing draw and went right down the field, Marissa Lucca finding Abbie Teefy in front of the crease for the go-ahead goal with 12:13 to go in the second.
 
Kole and Teefy then assisted on each other's goals in a span of just over a minute, putting the Lions on top, 6-3, with back-to-back sequences of precision passing and cutting. Lucca ended the five-goal blitz with a top-shelf laser off an assist from Kole, her 200^th career goal extending the advantage to 7-3 just past the midway point of the quarter.
 
The Falcons stole some momentum back with a pair of quick goals, then countered another free-position conversion from Nevins with a third goal by Hannah Gawne to trim the TCNJ lead to 8-6 at halftime.
 
TCNJ survived a two-player disadvantage for the first 90 seconds of the second half, a crucial defensive stand to maintain its two-goal cushion. The Lions then went the other way and scored, with Mckenah Schilp's long pass eluding Kole but nestling into the stick of Lucca, who found a cutting Kole wide open for an emphatic finish and a 9-6 lead. About two minutes later, Evie Campbell hit Nevins on a cut to the crease, and Nevins put a bouncer past the Messiah goalie and into the back of the cage to expand the margin to 10-6.
 
The run continued a couple minutes later, when Emily Potenza picked up a loose ball and sprinted upfield before dumping a pass to Lucca in front of the cage, the senior star making a difficult catch, turning and firing into the cage to make it 11-6 at the 6:35 mark. Kole then produced her fifth goal of the afternoon, rifling a feed from Nevins to the top shelf to up the advantage to 12-6.
 
The Falcons stopped the bleeding with a goal at the 1:48 mark, but the Lions sloughed off another non-releasable yellow to maintain a healthy lead going into the fourth.
 
Messiah got as close as 13-9 after two quick goals early in the final frame, but Lucca scored three consecutive goals – including a no-look shovel shot on the backhand side – before Kole polished off a four-goal spurt with another goal of her own. The Falcons pulled back a pair from there, but Kole provided the exclamation point with a free-position rocket with a minute to go to punch the Lions' ticket to the Sweet Sixteen.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• TCNJ owned a 29-22 advantage in shots, racking up 23 attempts in the last three quarters and putting 25 of those 29 efforts on frame
• The Lions won the draw control battle, 17-15, against a Messiah side that came in ranked in the top-10 nationally in draws per game
• Messiah also came in top-10 in fewest turnovers per game but nearly doubled its season average with 20 on Sunday, 12 of them forced by TCNJ; the Falcons also turned it over six times on 18 clear attempts
• Messiah went 5-of-8 on free-position shots, while TCNJ was 4-of-7

STANDOUT LIONS

• Kole notched a new career-high with her seven goals and matched her personal benchmark with 11 points; she scored on all but one of her eight shot attempts and also piled up eight draw controls
• Lucca got hot after halftime, scoring four of her five goals after intermission and adding four draws
• Nevins paired three goals with three assists
• Teefy (2G/1A) and Campbell (1G/2A) each had a three-point day, and Potenza handed out two assists to go with three draw controls
• Lucca, Meghan Hogan, Schilp, and Abby Williams each caused two turnovers, and Schilp led the Lions with four ground balls
• Wexler finished with seven saves, five of them in the second half

NOTES

• Lucca moved into a tie for 7^th in program history in career goals (204) and surpassed Lauren Dougher '06 for 4^th in career points (323)
• Lucca's 130 points in 2026 are 2^nd-most in a single season at TCNJ, just 10 off Jenny LaRocca's record from 2022, and her 78 goals in 2026 are 5^th-most in a single season
• Kole tied Ally Tobler '25 for 11^th in school history with 73 career assists and became the 24^th Lion to eclipse 200 career points
• Williams has 59 caused turnovers, tied for 3^rd in a single season
• Hogan joined the all-time top-25 in career caused turnovers with 52

UP NEXT

• The Lions will take on No. 7 Amherst with a spot in the NCAA quarterfinals on the line