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.

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 (Syracuse, NY/Henninger) 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. Keri Messa (Saratoga Springs, NY/Hotchkiss School) accounted for two of those, with Kristin Joyce (Longmeadow, MA/Longmeadow) scoring the other.

Cortland got things going scoring five of the next six goals to take its first lead at 5-4 with five different players scoring.

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 at 6-6 ties.

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, Union's Chelsea Charlette (South Hadley, MA/South Hadley) scored consecutive goals pushing the advantage to 10-7.

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 (Baldwinsville, NJ/C.W. Baker) with 3:40 setting up the exciting finish.

Messa lead the Dutchwomen with four goals and two assists, with Charlette also scoring four times and assisting once.

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 (Fulton, NY/G. Ray Bodley) collected seven.

This was the second meeting between the two schools, with Union winning the season-opener on its home field, 9-8.

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EWING, N.J. – Union College midfielder Keri Messa (Saratoga Springs/Hotchkiss School) recorded four goals and two assists, including what proved to be the game-winning goal with 5:15 remaining, as the nationally eighth-ranked Dutchwomen held off 18th-ranked Cortland, 13-12, in the NCAA Division III tournament second round.

Sophomore Jessie Fritz (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker) scored four goals and junior Danielle Torre (Massapequa) added three goals and two assists for Cortland. The Red Dragons (14-6), who were making their 10th straight NCAA appearance, finished the season the same way they started it - with a one-goal loss to Union. Cortland lost 9-8 at Union in early March.

Chelsea Charette (South Hadley, MA) added four goals and one assist and Kristin Joyce (Longmeadow, MA) scored three times for Union (15-3), which advances to face the host school, The College of New Jersey, in the national quarterfinals Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Union goalie Cat Ruggiero (Huntington) finished with eight saves.

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2008-05-10