The Lehigh women’s lacrosse team used defense and a four-goal performance by junior midfielder Lauren Beausoleil to help the Mountain Hawks beat Colgate University in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament.
Lehigh, the No. 4 seed host, beat the No. 5 seed Raiders 13-6 on a cold and rainy Tuesday night at Ulrich Sports Complex. The Mountain Hawks played solid defense throughout the course of the game, with a lot of help coming from junior goalie Taylor Tvedt. Tvedt only allowed six goals on 18 shots, recording nine saves.
“Our D just played together, its something we have been working on in practice not just focusing on our girl and our markups,” Beausoleil said, ”And having (Tvedt) in goal, she’s huge communicating with us, telling us where the ball is. It was just a great game.”
Beausoleil, who scored two goals in each half, led the offense. Other top performers on the offensive side were juniors Julianne D’Orazio and Allison LaBeau, both of whom added three goals for the Mountain Hawks.
Lehigh relied heavily on its speed, toughness and hustle to beat the Raiders.
“They just played so hard and executed really well on both ends of the field and through transition,” coach Jill Redfern said. “All parts of our game were on the same page it just added up.”
The Mountain Hawks controlled the tempo of the game by controlling possession, which helped them get six more shots on goal than the Raiders. Lehigh also won the ground ball count 13-8, which helped the team control the ball and tempo.
Lehigh will now advance to the semifinals in the Patriot League Tournament and will play Loyola University (Maryland). That game is set to be played Friday in Baltimore. Lehigh lost to Loyola during the regular season 14-13 in overtime.
“I think both games is a time to prove ourselves,” Beausoleil said. “For Loyola, we lost to them in overtime, so there is no better way to get them back. It’s a great chance to play them again.”
Loyola is the top team in the Patriot League with a 9-0 conference record, but Lehigh will be looking to upset them to move onto the Patriot League Championship.
“We will just make some adjustments from the first time, but really we are just going to play our game,” Redfern said.
If Lehigh were to win Friday’s game, it would move on to the Patriot League Championship game, where the Hawks would compete to win their first championship since 1994.
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