Lehigh women’s lacrosse rolls to victory vs rival Lafayette

On a Wednesday brisk night, it was the Lehigh women’s lacrosse team who came out on top, defeating rival Lafayette 16-6 at Ulrich Sports Complex.

After losing the first three Patriot League games to No. 7 Loyola, No. 17 Navy and Army, Lehigh has responded, picking up wins against Bucknell, Boston and Lafayette. Lehigh is now 6-7.

“Obviously, we love the Lehigh-Lafayette Rivalry, so really proud of the squad,” said Lehigh associate head coach Sammy Cermack. “I also think this is one of the first games this season that we’ve been complete from the defensive to the offensive ends of the field, so it was a really fun and exciting win. A lot of girls got in today, and a lot of good things happened.”

This was Lehigh’s eighth straight win against the Leopards. The last time they lost to the Leopards was on Mar. 29, 2013. Last season, Lehigh came away with a statement win in an 18-5 victory, and that’s exactly what this game this year was for the Mountain Hawks.

“Obviously, when we come out for the Rivalry game. it’s more intense than usual — just naturally,” said junior attacker Katia Carnevale. “But I feel like, with all that business in the back of our mind, we were able to just stay focused and just stick to our plan, and that’s what got us the win.”

Lehigh picked up the first three goals in the game. Lafayette found their first goal of the game with 2:58 left in the first quarter, but they could never find themselves quite in the game.

The Mountain Hawks held a 10-5 lead at the half. It was Lehigh’s defense in the third quarter that stepped up big, limiting the Lafayette offense to zero goals in the third quarter and just one goal in the fourth quarter to hold onto the win.

Lehigh sophomore goalie Hayley Hunt was a big reason for that. She finished the day with six saves and a .647 save percentage. Hunt, a transfer from Stony Brook, is currently one of the top goalies in the country this season. She is third in the nation in save percentage and 11th in saves.

“I think they really just played together, and they all did their jobs really well,” Cermack said. “They were sending slides, and they were communicating really well. They were just playing really good solid team defense and that led to a lot of great caused turnovers.”

Leading point scorer junior Gabby Schneider had another dominating performance, finishing with eight goals. Before tonight’s contest, Scheider led the team with 56 points. The second leading point scorer on Lehigh is Emma Eberhardt, who had 42 points before today.

Carnevale finished closely behind Schneider tonight with a program-record seven assists.

“(Carnevale and Schneider) have been playing together for a really long time — since their freshman year, so they know each other’s strengths and they kind of just let the ball do the work and trust each other and good things happen,” Cermack said.

The Mountain Hawks will look to continue their win streak when they take on Holy Cross at 11:30 a.m at Ulrich Sports Complex. This game will also be Senior Night. Senior Night was originally supposed to take place on April 9 for them, but it was postponed due to positive COVID-19 cases with the Eagles program.