Ewing, NJ – Montclair State's bid for its first New Jersey Athletic Conference Women's Lacrosse championship came up short as the third-seeded Red Hawks fell to No. 1 seed The College of New Jersey, 10-6 on Saturday.

The host Lions (18-1) used a pair of runs in each half to capture the league's automatic bid to NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championship.

Junior FRANCESCA VERRONE scored four times for MSU, which had its five-game winning streak snapped with its second lost to TCNJ this season. Montclair fell to the Lions 8-6 at Sprague Field on April 9. The Red Hawks will be among the teams in consideration for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Montclair State was ranked No. 6 in the latest regional rankings.

New Jersey raced out to a 5-0 lead and held the Red Hawks off the scoreboard for the first 19 minutes of the contest. Amanda Muller scored twice in the first five minutes and her third goal with 20:21 left gave the hosts a 4-0 advantage.

Emily Kratz made its five-goal advantage with 15:43 to go before Montclair got on the board with 11:27 left. AVIANA PARAGGIO finished off a feed Alex DiPiero. Kratz answered for TCNJ and after a goal by Verrone, Kathleen Jaeger tallied with 4:46 to play extending the lead to 7-2. Verron scored twice in the final 90 seconds helping MSU get within 7-4 at the break.

KARA CRAMPTON scored 34 seconds into the second half as Montclair got within 7-5 however the Lions collected the next three goals over a 10-minute span to build its lead back up to 10-5 with 10:39 left on Megan Deviln's second goal. Verrone scored with 1:14 left for the final margin.

Verrone added three draws and four ground balls while goalkeeper REBECCA MYERS stopped seven shots for the Red Hawks.