Despite a hard-fought second half, the Lehigh field hockey team dropped its Patriot League opener 2-1 to Bucknell at the Ulrich Sports Complex on Saturday.
The Mountain Hawks’ lone goal was scored late in the second half by sophomore Teresa Carotenuto, assisted by fellow forward Marissa Glatt.
Coming off of losses in its past four games, the team was looking to improve its game and make adjustments this weekend to be in a good position to start league play off with a victory. Despite the loss, first year head coach Caitlin Dallmeyer is happy with the team’s progression so far this season.
“This was the best game that we’ve played all season, and I was really happy with the continued progress of the team,” Dallmeyer said. “We worked really hard this week and focused on a lot of detail pieces in our game and our footwork primarily behind the ball and it really showed.”
The team was playing from behind early on in the game as Bucknell’s Anna Wills was able to score the first goal of the game on a penalty stroke at the 15:40 mark. The rest of the first half remained scoreless.
“At halftime we talked about capitalizing on opportunities and continuing to keep the energy and communication high for the second half,” Glatt said.
In the second half of the game, Lehigh was able to fire off several shots late in the game. Freshman goalkeeper Paige Innarella also got her first opportunity in goal of the season, playing the entire second half after starting goalie Julia Ward suffered an injury.
Seven minutes into the second half, Bucknell was able to capitalize again on a well-executed penalty corner, adding a second goal to the scoreboard. Lehigh fought back later on in the half at the 65:35 mark when Glatt fed Carotenuto a pass from across the field to assist Lehigh’s only goal of the game.
“The goal was such a great team effort, and I think it gave our team a lot of positive momentum, but we just ran out of time at the end,” Carotenuto said.
Lehigh fired off a total of seven shots on goal throughout the game and came close to scoring several times in the end of the second half, but was not able to pull out the win in the end. Dallmeyer was pleased with the team’s overall play and execution around the circle but said she would like to see adjustments continuing to be made going into tomorrow.
“Transitioning from attack to defense definitely can be better, and making sure that we are finishing in front of the net,” Dallmeyer said. “Receptions were an issue for us at crucial points in the game and that didn’t allow us to move the ball forward, so that is definitely something we will be adjusting before we play (Sunday).”
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