EWING, N.J.—The No. 1 TCNJ women's lacrosse team built a 4-1 lead in the first half and defeated No. 16 William Smith College 8-2 in an NCAA tournament second round game played at Lions Stadium this afternoon.
 
The Lions improve to 18-2 this season and advance to the NCAA tournament third round on May 19. The Herons finished their season with a 15-5 overall mark. The Lions scored six of their goals on free position chances. Kasey Donoghue and Kathleen Jaeger led the TCNJ effort with three goals each. Elizabeth Morrison had a game-high five ground balls, won four draws and logged a game-high six caused turnovers. Miranda Chrone made five saves in goal for TCNJ.
 
Senior Melissa Moore led William Smith with a goal and an assist. She shared a game-high with four draws, picked up three ground balls and caused four turnovers. First-year Ellen Arena had three ground balls and a caused turnover. First-year Rachel Yackel scored once. First-year Jules Kennedy made 11 saves in goal for the Herons.
 
Donoghue scored her first goal of the day just 38 seconds into the game on a free position. With 23:31 left in the first, Moore backed down her defenders and scored an unassisted goal to tie the game up at 1-1. It was her 50th goal this season. Moore finished her Heron career third on the William Smith lists for career draws (122) and career caused turnovers (96). She is also 10th in Heron history in career points (188).
 
Allie Gorman bounced a shot into the back of the net after a pass from Olivia Cleale to put TCNJ back on top with 18:34 left in the first. Free position goals from Jaeger and Donoghue gave the Lions a 4-1 lead at the break.
 
Yackel scored 1:30 into the second half to get the Herons within two. Moore dished to Yackel who rolled around her defender and scored her 20th goal of the season. However the Lions closed out the game with four unanswered goals. Donoghue completed her hat trick with a free position goal. Alex Fitzpatrick took advantage of another free position with 18:03 remaining to make it 6-2. Jaeger registered back-to-back goals to close out the game.
 
The Lions finished with a 24-12 lead in shots, a 15-12 edge in ground balls and a 7-5 advantage in draws. William Smith was successful on 8-of-13 clear attempts, and the Lions finished 11-of-13 clear attempts.
 
The Heron Class of 2018 led William Smith to three straight Liberty League regular season and tournament titles, three straight trips to the NCAA tournament and a 54-26 four-year overall record and a 31-6 four-year Liberty League record.