Ewing NJ -- The College of New Jersey and Union College (NY) 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.

TCNJ (16-1) won the opening game at TCNJ's Soccer Complex with a 12-3 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CA), before Union College (15-3) held off a late charge from SUNY Cortland to pull out a 13-12 victory over the Red Dragons. The regional championship is slated for Sunday, May 11 at 1:00 p.m.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps capped its successful season at 13-3, while the Red Dragons finished their season at 14-6.

TCNJ's top-ranked defense held the Athenas to only one goal over the final 45 minutes as the game as the Lions advanced to the regional finals for the 24th consecutive year.

The teams battled to a 2-2 tie as TCNJ netted the first two goals off of the sticks of Leigh Mitchell (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) and Katie Reuther (Toms River, NJ/Toms River North), while the CMS got goals from Kristen Steenerson (Atlanta, GA/Lovett School) and Courtney Cronin (Madison, CT/Daniel Hand).

TCNJ broke that tie as Mitchell netted her second of the game on a feed from Lisa Seldeen (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Valley). That goal came with 12:45 remaining before the intermission.

The Lion tacked on three more goals before the break to carry a 7-2 advantage into the half.

In the second half, Alison Jaeger (Hampton, North Hunterdon) made it 8-3 for the Lions, but the Athenas got the goal right back as Colbi Brawner (Bainbridge Island, WA/Bainbridge).

TCNJ's defense then took over keeping CMS off of the board the final 23:41 and the Lions scored the game's final four goals to advance to the regional final.

Mitchell paced the Lions with three goals and one assist, while Reuther and Jaeger each scored twice and assisted on another.

CMS's Katya Strohl (Oak Park, IL/River Forest) had a huge game finishing with 16 saves, while senior Caitlin Gregory (Winslow, NJ/Eastern) made seven for her 16th victory of the season.

2008-05-10