Lehigh women’s lacrosse eases to victory over UC Davis

In frigid February temperatures, the Lehigh women’s lacrosse team won its first home game of the season against UC Davis 7-2 on Friday.

For the first half, the Mountain Hawks led 5-0. In the second half, UC Davis scored two goals, but Lehigh responded with two more before the contest was over.

After this victory and the loss to Pennsylvania State University on Feb. 14, the team’s record is now 1-1.

Senior attackman Carli Sukonik scored four goals and also achieved her milestone 100th career goal. Junior midfielder Kendall Garden and sophomore midfielders Lauren Beausoleil and Allison LaBeau each scored one of the remaining goals. Sophomore goalie Taylor Tvedt had four saves.

“As our second game of the season, we were really looking for our first win,” she said. “Our goals going into the game were to play tough and play together despite the cold weather.”

The incredibly cold weather is a component that can negatively affect play, Beausoleil said.

“After our loss against Penn State, we all wanted to come out and prove to ourselves that we are better than how we performed last week,” she said. “Although the weather was a tough component, we realized that the key to winning the game would be to maintain possession and take control of the tempo.”

Tvedt said that the team had many strengths in this game.

“In this particular game, our strengths were our aggression, our fitness and our wins on 50/50 balls,” she said. “We went hard to every groundball and the stats showed that.”

LaBeau agreed that the team’s hustle was an important factor in the win.

“Our strengths in this game were definitely the re-defend, hustling to get the ball back before it reached our defensive end, and our patience on offense,” she said. “We really made note to slow the ball down, let our middies take a quick break, and run through our plays to get the open look.”

Both Beausoleil and Tvedt agreed that their shooting was their ultimate weakness.

“Our shot percentage was disappointing,” Tvedt said. “It was awesome that we got a lot of looks to the cage, but we hit the goalie a lot or just missed the net altogether.”

LaBeau mentioned a weakness that is more technical, but can be corrected. She said the team occasionally forced the ball on the inside too quickly.

“Going forward, we plan on doing big things,” Beausoleil said. “We had a lot of tough losses by one point last year that still hangs over our heads. We want to make it to the championship and prove ourselves this year.”

LaBeau said she wants to make the most of the team’s talent moving forward. She said the team has its heart set on making it to and winning the Patriot League Championship.

“Our team goals this season include playing for a full sixty minutes, playing tough and smart, start to finish,” LaBeau said. “We have so much talent and potential this year, and are looking forward to making the most of it.”

The Hawks will host Niagara University at home Sunday at 1 p.m.