Lehigh Women Have Upper Hand in Shootout
from press release
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh picked up an
impressive 17-14 victory over a tough Albany squad on Monday
afternoon at the Ulrich Sports Complex as the Mountain Hawks earned
their eleventh victory of the season. Junior captain Lauren
Dykstra scored a game high five goals, while Kelly Draper, Inneke
Carmola and Allison Thomas each netted three scores for Lehigh, who
improves to 11-3 overall. Mel Rorie netted four goals for the
visiting Great Danes who fall to 9-2 following the loss.
The teams combined for 63 shots and 41 fouls on the afternoon with
Lehigh taking 30 of the shots and Albany committing 21 of the
fouls. Dykstra led the Mountain Hawks with three ground balls
and two caused turnovers and she also won two draw controls, while
Thomas was the team leader in draw controls with four. As a
team Lehigh caused six turnovers and in goal senior Kelsey Ferris
came on in relief and stopped 12 shots en route to earning the
victory.
Nikki Branchini caused a game-high four turnovers for the Great
Danes, while Stephanie Kempf was the team leader in draw controls
with four. Four different Albany players registered three
ground balls and goal keeper Ashley Ross made 12 saves in her 60
minutes of work.
“Three games in a week takes its toll on you, but I thought
we did a great job against a very physical Albany team,”
explained Lehigh head coach Jill Redfern. “We were
ready for them today; Albany is a strong team but I think
we’ve been building momentum and we’re beginning to
peak. We had a few costly turnovers today that need to be
cleaned up but we’re improving with each game.”
Redfern then commented on the play of her senior goal keeper.
“I thought Kelsy was a difference maker, particularly in that
second half. She came up with a number of big
saves.”
Lehigh raced out to a 3-0 lead on Albany as Dykstra, Meg Kelly and
Thomas scored goals in the first two minutes of play to give the
Mountain Hawks an early advantage. Olivia Jarem got the Great
Danes on the board with her score at the 26:51 mark but Lauren
Murray and Dykstra netted back-to-back scores for the Brown and
White to give it a 5-1 lead with 24:36 to play in the opening
half.
Albany responded with four straight goals, including one from
Taylor Frink with 19:33 on the clock as the visitors pulled even
with the Mountain Hawks. Carmola put Lehigh back on top with
a free position goal at the 18:07 mark but Rorie answered with an
unassisted score with 16:54 to go before halftime to make the score
6-6. With 15:02 to play Lehigh unleashed a 3-0 run as Thomas
scored twice and Dykstra once to give the Mountain Hawks a 9-6
advantage. Melanie Sosnowski pulled Albany within 9-7 with
her score at the 10:18 mark, but the Mountain Hawks ripped off the
final four scores of the half to take a 12-7 lead into
intermission. Draper scored three of the final goals and
Carmola added the other.
Jarem opened the second half with a free position goal for the
visitors less than three minutes into the second half, but Lehigh
answered with another 3-0 run as Dykstra scored twice and Murray
added one to give the Mountain Hawks a 16-8 advantage with 19:27 on
the clock. Albany made things interesting as the Great Danes
scored three straight to pull within five with 13:47 to play, but
Carmola scored with 6:10 to go and Lehigh was in front 17-11.
Albany added three more scores in the final minutes but Lehigh did
a nice job of possessing the ball and was able to maintain its
multi-goal cushion.
Lehigh will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when the
Mountain Hawks play host to Navy at the Ulrich Sports Complex on
Senior Day. The opening draw control is set for 1:00 and all
of the action will be broadcast live on Lehighsports.com.
