EWING, NJ -- The College of New Jersey and Union College will meet for the first time in women's lacrosse as both teams advanced to the regional championship in the 2008 NCAA Division III Tournament with wins on Saturday.
#2 TCNJ (16-1) won the opening game at TCNJ's Soccer Complex with a 12-3 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (13-3), before #8 Union College (15-3) held off a late charge from SUNY Cortland to pull out a 13-12 victory over the Red Dragons (14-6). The regional championship is slated for Sunday, May 11 at 1 p.m. It is the first time the Dutchwomen are in the regional title game since 2002, when Union lost to Amherst.
The Dutchwomen never trailed in the second half, but had to fight off a late Cortland charge with the Red Dragons having a chance to tie the game in the final seconds. That chance came as Red Dragon Elizabeth Acee fired a shot just wide as the horn sounded.
The game was close from the start with Union getting the early jump scoring the game's first three goals. Messa accounted for two of those, with Joyce scoring the other. Union led 3-0 after 5:26 and had a 4-1 advantage after Joyce's second score with 22:54 left. Cortland took a 5-4 lead with 13:19 left after scoring four straight from four different players. The teams were tied two more times in the half with the Dutchwomen taking the lead for good as Messa and
Emily Bryson (Charlestown, MA/Gov. Dummer) netted back-to-back goals to break a 6-6 tie. The Red Dragons crept to within one goal by the half as
Danielle Torre (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) scored with 1:41 left in the period.
In the second half, Charette scored consecutive goals pushing the advantage to 10-7 with 25:23 left in the half. Cortland chipped away to make it a one-goal game at 10-9, but Union again scored consecutive goals pushing the margin back to three.
Union later led 13-11 on a goal by Messa, but the Red Dragons scored on a free-position shot by Jessie Fritz with 3:40 setting up the exciting finish.
For the Red Dragons, Fritz netted four goals and Torre added three. Union goalie
Cat Ruggiero (Huntington, NJ/Huntington) finished with eight saves, while Cortland's Deanne Abell collected seven.
This was the second meeting between the two schools this season, with Union winning the season-opener on its home field, 9-8 back on March 3. Messa moved into sixth all-time in career points at Union with 160, while
Caitlin Cuozzo (Norfolk, MA) now has 152 career points to tie former teammate Alexandra Toney for eighth all-time at Union.
Cortland outshot the Dutchwomen, 26-23, and had a 17-12 ground ball advantage. Union won 15 of the 27 draw controls, and the Red Dragons forced 20 turnovers while posting 14.
