The Lehigh women’s lacrosse team bested rival Lafayette College in a 6-4 victory on Wednesday at Frank Banko Field.
With tonight’s win, and Boston University’s win over College of the Holy Cross, Lehigh qualified for their third straight Patriot League Tournament appearance and hold on to the No. 2 ranking in the league.
“We are really excited to qualify and to be sure we are in the tournament,” coach Jill Redfern said. “I mean our team has worked really hard, they have taken every game one at a time, so just to have that assurance that they are going to be seeded in some position is exciting for us.”
Lafayette jumped to an early lead over the Mountain Hawks, scoring two in the beginning of the first half after holding in the ball in the Lehigh defensive zone for an uninterrupted nine minutes. Lehigh came back to take the lead with three straight unassisted goals from sophomore defender Kayleen Kelly, senior midfielder Kendall Garden and freshman attacker Jane Henderson. Lafayette came back to tie the game at three going into the half.
Lehigh came into the second half with back-to-back goals from freshman attacker County Henig, adding to her season total of 24 goals. Junior midfielder Julianne D’Orazio added to Lehigh’s scoring with one goal and one assist in the game.
The Mountain Hawks were prepared for a slower game, but did not expect Lafayette to slow down the game as much as it did. Along with their nine-minute hold in the first, during the last six minutes of the game Lafayette managed to hold the ball in their zone for much of that time.
“We weren’t expecting them to be that slow,” Henig said. “But we did know that they were going to hold the ball and look for the best shot.”
Henig credits the Mountain Hawks for accounting for the slow play by working together and communicating, holding the Leopards to only a few goals. Their solid playing on top of a great performance from junior goaltender Taylor Tvedt in net allowed for momentum on the offensive side, Henig said.
Redfern said it’s always tough to play when a team slows it down as much as Lafayette did. Redfern said her team just didn’t have the ball enough, particularly during the nine-minute hold, to get any momentum.
“But at the end of the day we are taking the win, and we got out of there with it,” Redfern said.
Henig led the team in goals with two and is second on the team in with 24, trailing only junior attacker Allison LaBeau and her 37 goals on the season. Redfern said she was excited about Henig’s production tonight, especially since the team didn’t have very much touches on the ball, so Henig came in big when the team needed her to.
“Scoring goals is huge, it gets our momentum going,” Henig said. “So I think that has huge to come out and have goals in the second half.”
Today’s victory came after a loss against Loyola University (Maryland). Redfern credits the bounce back to the Mountain Hawks defense which was able to hold Lafayette back even though Lehigh didn’t have the ball much during the game.
Lehigh will take on Colgate University next on Saturday in Hamilton, New York.
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