Lehigh women’s lacrosse falls to league opponent Navy

The Lehigh women’s lacrosse team lost a tough game to No. 13 Navy on Wednesday at the Ulrich Sports Complex 23-6.

Navy opened with a 5-0 run to start the first half. After a few tries, Lehigh got on the board 12 minutes into the half with a goal from freshman midfielder Maggie Kelly.

The Mountain Hawks began to gain momentum and outscored the Mids five goals to three toward the end of the half. Navy then went on a five goal run in the final three and a half minutes making it 13-5.

“I thought we had a really nice stretch, but for the second league game in a row at home, we had a really poor close of the first half,” said Lehigh head coach, Jill Redfern.

Navy extended its scoring run at the start of the second half, posting eight unanswered goals and bringing the score to 21-5, before Lehigh was able to respond with its lone second half goal from senior attacker Mary Ellen Carron.

Junior midfielder Sondra Dickey was a bright spot for the Mountain Hawks with a team-high two goals as well as four draw controls, a groundball and a turnover. In addition to Dickey, Carron and Kelly, attacker Courtney Henig, and attacker Kellie Gough each added a goal for Lehigh.

Navy’s attack was relentless, but Lehigh goalie, Samantha Sagi, had eight saves. 

“It’s hard when you spend so much time on defense,” Redfern said. “A lot of the goals she let up were one-on-one, difficult to defend.”

Navy’s Kelly Larkin continued dominance in the Patriot League with five goals and five assists against the Mountain Hawks. She currently has the most game-winning goals, points per game and goals per game in the Patriot League.  

This is the third Patriot League loss in a row for Lehigh following losses to Loyola Maryland and Boston University, making the Mountain Hawks 0-3 in league play.

The three schools Lehigh opened its Patriot League competition against are currently and traditionally at the top of the league for women’s lacrosse.

“This is the best competition in our league,” Redfern said. “We’ve kind of gotten those three out of the way now, and we need to be ready to compete with the rest of the league.”

Lehigh plays Army West Point next at the Ulrich Sports Complex on Saturday. Army is coming off a 19-13 win over league opponent Holy Cross, making them 1-2 in conference play.

The Mountain Hawks look to break their losing streak and get their first conference victory this weekend while the Black Knights look to turn their league win into a streak.