Mountain Hawks open league play at Navy Saturday
Posted: 03/08/2013
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Lehigh women’s lacrosse team will look to rebound from a tough home loss to Delaware when it opens Patriot League play at Navy Saturday. Opening draw at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md. is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. The Mountain Hawks stand at 2-2 after victories over Villanova and Binghamton and losses to Temple and Delaware.
Lehigh went into an early hole, allowing five straight goals to begin each half of Tuesday’s loss to the Blue Hens. First half goals by sophomore Carli Sukonik, senior Julie McBrien and sophomore Kelsey Yenco cut the Mountain Hawks’ deficit to 5-3, but that would be as close as they would get. Freshman Kendall Garden scored a pair of goals and registered her first career assist in the losing effort. Delaware ended up with 13 turnovers compared to Lehigh’s 11.
McBrien leads the Lehigh offense with 10 goals and 12 draw controls, while Yenco has scooped up a team-high seven ground balls. Junior Alex Fitzpatrick has started all four games in goal for the Brown and White, stopping 26 shots in 213:48 minutes of play.
Coming off a 12-8 win versus Richmond Saturday, Navy remains an unbeaten 5-0 on the season. Finding themselves down 8-7 to the Spiders with more than 20 minutes left in Saturday’s contest, the Midshipmen rattled off five straight goals to preserve their winning streak. Loren Generi had three of the final five goals while Jasmine DePompeo scored the other two.
Generi and DePompeo lead a group of four double-digit scorers for Navy with 18 and 17 goals, respectively. DePompeo has scored on 90.9 percent of her shots on goal and leads the Midshipmen with 15 assists and 32 points. On the defensive end, Emily Mellin has caused four turnovers and Annie Foky has earned three wins by making 27 saves in net. Navy averages 14.4 draw controls and 18 ground balls per game.
Saturday’s game will be the rubber match in the all-time series, which is tied at four games apiece since Navy’s first year of existence. Navy has won the last two games however, taking down Lehigh 14-4 last season and 10-8 in the 2011 Patriot League semifinals in Hamilton, N.Y.
Lehigh will face the #2 Florida Gators on Tuesday in Gainesville, Fla. before returning to Ulrich Sports Complex for a contest against Colgate on March 16.
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