EWING, NJ – The 18th-ranked Johns Hopkins women's soccer team used four second-half goals to turn a 1-0 halftime lead into a stunning 5-0 victory over host and 10^th-ranked TCNJ in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Division III Tournament Sunday afternoon.  The Blue Jays advance to the round of 16 for the 13^th time in program history and improve to 17-2-3 on the year with today's victory.  The Lions suffer their first loss of the season and end the year at 18-1-2.
 
Despite controlling the pace and the stat sheet through the first 45 minutes, the Blue Jays led just 1-0 at the break as the only one of Hopkins' 11 first-half shots that beat TCNJ goalie Ellen Williams was a 33^rd minute tip from Carrie McIntire off a service from Maria Romo-Nichols.  The goal came in transition after Blue Jay goalie Allyson Shick came far off her line to smother a one-on-one attempt for the Lions.
 
After collecting all but four of the game's 15 shots in the first half, the Blue Jays tilted the field even more in the second half and needed less than 20 minutes to turn the one-goal lead into a five-goal advantage.
 
McIntire netted her second of the game in the 48^th minute to push the lead to 2-0.  After a free kick from Katie Sullivan came off the crossbar, graduate student Olivia Piraino collected the loose ball in the middle of the box, slipped a pass to McIntire on the outside of the goal and McIntire blew one into the far corner to double the lead.
 
The two-goal lead held for exactly 10 minutes before the Blue Jays exploded for three goals in a seven-minute span to put the game away; all three goals were scored by Sullivan.

Sullivan started her natural hat trick in transition as she worked the middle the of the field, got her left foot free from 25 yards out and blew one past a diving Williams in the 58^th minute.  Five minutes later, she calmly played a Juliana Taxter corner kick into the goal from six yards out as she redirected Taxter's offering past Williams.  Less than three minutes later, she completed her three-goal effort when she redirected a cross from Carolyn Johnson past Williams from nearly the same spot as her previous goal to close out the scoring in the 65^th minute.
 
Already limiting a TCNJ offense that was averaging better than 23 shots and more than 2.5 goals game, the Blue Jay defense took over from there and locked down the Blue Jays' fourth straight shutout and the 14^th year of the year for Johns Hopkins as the unit allowed just five second-half shots.  Three of those came in a five-minute flurry near the 80-minute mark, but one of those drifted wide, another was blocked and Shick was equal to a Maggie Murphy shot in the 82^nd minute to preserve the clean sheet.
 
Johns Hopkins will take on NYU in the round of 16 on Saturday, November 23 at a site and time to be announced by the NCAA later this evening or on Monday morning.  NYU advanced to third round of the tournament with a 2-0 victory over McDaniel on Sunday.
 
Notes: 
• Johns Hopkins improves to 11-2 under head coach Dan Weiler in NCAA Tournament games and is now 40-19-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
• The five-goal margin of victory is Johns Hopkins' largest ever against TCNJ. 
• The five-goal margin of victory is the largest ever for the Blue Jays in a second round NCAA Tournament game and is tied for the second-largest margin of victory in any NCAA Tournament game for Johns Hopkins.
• Sullivan's hat trick is the fourth in Johns Hopkins' NCAA Tournament history and the first since Meg Van de Loo had three in a 3-1 win over Western Connecticut St. in 2016.
• Sullivan also became Johns Hopkins' career goal-scoring and points leader in NCAA Tournament games as her three goals today boosts her career goal total to nine and her career point total to 22.