Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/28/22
From Press Release
Senior goalie Molly Lalibert made 16 saves and freshman Margie Carden (Villa Maria Academy) scored seven times in seven shots and broke the school record for single-season goals as the Tufts University women’s lacrosse team earned a spot in the NCAA Championship Game with an 18-7 win over The College of New Jersey on Saturday at D. J. Kerr Stadium in Salem, Va.
Head coach Courtney Shute’s Jumbos (19-3) will play conference rival Middlebury College in the national championship game on Sunday at 3:30 pm. The Panthers (21-1) won 18-5 over Gettysburg in Saturday’s other semifinal at Kerr Stadium on the campus of Roanoke College.
Tufts started off slow today with the TCNJ scoring first and forcing turnovers defensively. The Lions won the draw control, kept possession and got a goal from Jennifer LaRocca at 13:15 for a 1-0 lead. However, once the Jumbos scored their first at 5:13 of the opening quarter – Carden from Mae Briody – the tide turned quickly.
Backed by Laliberty, who would save 11 of the 13 shots she saw in the first half, the Jumbos would streak to a 10-2 halftime lead. Carden scored three times in the first, but TCNJ was within 4-2 when LaRocca scored off free position with 21 seconds left in the period. However, the Jumbos outscored the Lions 6-0 in the second quarter with three more from Carden and one each from Caroline Walter, Caroline Conaghan and Madeline Delaney.
Carden, a second-team All-American, has 68 goals. The old Tufts mark for single-season goals was 62 set in 2019 by Emily Games (Radnor).
Also for Tufts, defender Becca Gable (Abington) had two caused turnovers.
For TCNJ, Ally Tobler (Washington Township) had two goals and Anna Devlin (Ocean City) scored once while Jillian Westerby (Cherokee) had four groundballs, two caused turnovers and a draw control, and Wayden Ay (Haddonfield) added a draw control, a caused turnover and a groundball.
The Jumbos continued to roll into the second half, scoring five in a row to open the third period for a 15-2 advantage and running time. Four different Jumbos had the goals, with two by Ella Lesperance.
The Lions would score four in a row from late in the third until halfway into the second, started by Anna Devlin’s free-position goal with 10 seconds left in the third quarter. Ally Tobler then had back-to-back strikes helping TCNJ make the score 15-6. The Jumbos scored three of the final four goals, including Lesperance’s third of the game, for the 18-7 ending.
Laliberty finished with a .695 save percentage, stopping 16 of the Lions’ 23 shots on goal. Her four ground balls also led Tufts. Becca Gable caused two turnovers defensively and Kathryn Delaney won four draw controls. Emma Joyce and Anna Clarke both scored twice for Tufts.
LaRocca scord four times with two assists for TCNJ. Jillian Westerby collected four ground balls, Sabrina Phillips took eight draws while also causing two turnovers. Julia Charest stopped nine shots in goal.
The stats were closer than the score, with shots going 35-33 for Tufts and ground balls favoring TCNJ 17-15. The Lions had one more draw control (14-13). The Jumbos were 5 for 10 on free-position chances.
This will be the third meeting of Tufts and Middlebury this season. The Panthers won the regular-season game 14-8, but Tufts won the NESCAC Championship Game 9-8 over the Panthers in Vermont.
