Women’s basketball to face Lafayette in Easton

When the Lehigh women’s basketball team heads to Easton on Saturday to face Lafayette College, recent history won’t be on its side.

No player on the current roster has won at Lafayette in their career, with Lehigh (15-10, 8-6 Patriot) having lost the past four away games to their rivals. Senior forward Kenny Kinek stressed that this gave the upcoming game extra significance for her and her classmates.

“Our seniors are really fueled to get a win at Lafayette, especially because we haven’t done that yet,” she said.

Although they haven’t won on the road, the team did win the rivalry matchup earlier this year in Stabler Arena.

“At the home game this year, we played a very quick game, and I think that it really tired them out,” senior forward Elizabeth Sharlow said. “They’re not as deep as we are, so we were able to sub in and out and really push the pace.”

Sharlow’s words are backed up by the stats. Among all non-overtime games played by Lehigh this year, they scored the second highest number of points and had the highest number of field goals attempted in their game against Lafayette.

The team was helped further by a huge performance from junior forward Lexi Martins, who led the game in both points and rebounds with 27 and 15, respectively. The 27 points are also a season-high for a Lehigh player.

Despite the previous victory and Lafayette’s place near the bottom of the Patriot League standings, Lehigh has no intention of taking their opponents lightly.

“I think there’s a lot of excitement going into that gym,” Martins said. “Notoriously, it really hasn’t mattered where we’ve been sitting in the league or what the standings have been. We always give each other a pretty good game.”

Sharlow had a similar opinion, saying that Lafayette always seemed to be at their best when facing the Mountain Hawks.

The team appeared to be playing some of its best basketball leading up to this game, with the win over Lafayette coming in the middle of a six-game winning streak.

Since then, though, the team has lost its past three games, averaging 68.7 points allowed in them despite allowing an average of just 60.8 for the season. Sharlow said the the players aren’t worrying.

“I think everyone really just has to keep their spirits and confidence up that we’re still just as good of a team as six games in a row that we are right now,” Sharlow said.

Martins also mentioned that the team still feels as though it has momentum despite the losses and that the players feel confident with their recent performance.

The quality of Lehigh’s most recent opponents suggests that the team’s positive attitude isn’t misplaced. The past three games have come against College of the Holy Cross, Bucknell University and Navy, all of which are in the top half of the Patriot League.

While not getting the results it was hoping for recently, Kinek said that the team is looking to turn things around with a solid performance at Lafayette. Her teammates agreed, citing the importance of the game and its timing late in the season.

“I think that playing a game like Lafayette will get our energy back up, the excitement back up, and hopefully it can kick start a couple more wins in a row to lead us into the playoffs going off on the right foot,” Sharlow said.

The game will be at 2 p.m. and will be shown live on the Patriot League Network.