Lehigh women’s soccer finishes ninth in Patriot League

In the end, Lehigh women’s soccer fell short of a postseason slot.

Lehigh (7-8-3, 2-5-2 Patriot) finished its season ninth in the Patriot League after a 1-0 loss to American University in the final game of the season Friday night. Despite finishing near the bottom of the conference, the Hawks had the fifth-best overall winning percentage in the league.

The team will graduate seven seniors, one of them being captain and midfielder Madi Morgan. Morgan looked back on the season and her overall career as a Mountain Hawk, saying how special the team was and how she believed that if players can continue to find a way to connect as well as they have, the team will go far in the future.

“One thing I noticed was that each year we have definitely been growing and getting better, that’s for sure,” Morgan said. “We do need to find ways to connect on the field, especially defensively. People need to know how each player plays and translate that onto the field.”

Senior goalkeeper Ali Nahapetian, who contributed 108 saves and five shutouts this season, was also a crucial part of the team’s success. In the game prior to finishing the regular season against American, Nahapetian tallied eight saves against Bucknell University.

After a scoreless first half, Bucknell responded with three consecutive goals, finishing the game with a 3-0 win.

Heading into Friday’s game against American, who sat in 10th place in the Patriot League standings, Lehigh, who stood at sixth place, had to beat or tie the game with American in order to continue its season.

With the team coming up short against American, it took Morgan some time to gather her feelings and realize her time as a Mountain Hawk was coming to an end.

“I didn’t really reflect back on the year immediately after we lost … it didn’t hit me,” she said.

Morgan said how her emotions of finishing her career playing for Lehigh’s women’s soccer team sincerely affected her on her senior night.

“It was frustrating losing that game against American, but in all honesty, I was more sad going into senior night because our team made it so special,” Morgan said. “They decorated all of our lockers and that’s when I really realized, ‘Wow, this is it. This is my last home game with my best friends.’ That’s when I felt it.”

In addition, Morgan advised next year’s team to truly work on consistency and connecting with each other on the field. Specifically, Morgan emphasized the importance of attacking more offensively and making it a priority to have more of the forward players playing up on the field where they are in a better position to score because the team has a lot of talented players who can do so.

“There were times where we would pass the ball great and be in the position to score, and then it would switch two minutes later and we just wouldn’t be passing as well,” Morgan said.

She reiterated how important it is for the team to continue to focus on consistency and connections on the field, knowing other players on a deeper level in order to “put the pieces together.” Morgan also acknowledged the difficulty that comes with finishing her career on this team, not because of its record specifically, but because of how close-knit the team was and the relationships that were built because of the team.

Freshman midfielder Sabrina Mertz was also a key offensive factor, scoring seven goals and three assists for a team-leading 17 points this season. Mertz was named both Patriot Rookie of the Week and Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week at points throughout the season.

With the contribution of Nahapetian, Mertz and other players, the team won all four weekly awards — Offensive, Defensive, Goalkeeper and Rookie, at least once in 2015.