Bethlehem, PA – Lehigh lost its second straight game and Patriot League opener on Saturday to American by a score of 14-5 at the Ulrich Sports Complex. The Mountain Hawks trailed by a score of just 4-2 at halftime, but allowed ten goals in the second half, and could not overcome the Eagles offensive attack. The 14 goals allowed were the most that the Brown and White has given up all season. With the loss, Lehigh falls to 3-2 on the season, while the Eagle pick up theijr first win of the season and now sit at 1-3.
Chelsea Kapp got the scoring started just 1:16 into the contest to put American up 1-0, and Sarah Milewski added a second score just 2:18 later to put the Eagles in front 2-0. Lehigh got on the board at the 15:59 mark when senior Sarah Starsoneck scored her tenth goal of the season off of an assist from Amy Chamberlain and the Mountain Hawks were within one. Milewski scored her second goal with just five minutes to go in the half, but Lehigh answered back off of a goal from Chamberlain, her 11th of the season, and the Brown and White went into halftime down 4-2.
Rebecca Copeland opened the second half scoring for American at the 29:26 mark off of an assist from Jackie Lane and the Eagles were in front 5-2. Senior captain Barrie Cominsky scored off of a free position shot just 36 seconds later and Lehigh closed to within two at 5-3. American went on the offensive attack however, scoring the games next five goals, and with 14:00 left, the Eagles were up by a score of 10-3. Lissy King found the back of the net for the eighth time in 2005 with 8:46 remaining to close the gap to six, at 10-4, but the Eagles scored two more goals in a span of 23 seconds to push the advantage back up to eight at 12-4.
Chamberlain scored her second goal of the contest with 5:39 remaining, but it was too little, too late, as American added two more scores to push their total up to 14. Lehigh scooped up 14 ground balls on the afternoon, and was 2 of 4 on free position attempts, while the Eagles scooped up 12 ground balls for the game.
In goal for Lehigh, junior Kyle Begina got the start and sent back five shots in 44 minutes of action, while Brittany Bessler saw 15 minutes of time in goal and sent back three Eagle shots. Milewski finished the game with four goals for American, while Moriah Linnell handed out three assists. Kathleen Finnegan played 55 minutes in goal for the Eagles and sent back seven Mountain Hawk shots on the day.
Head Coach Liz Ota was disappointed with the loss following the game. “I think we’re all upset with the way we played out here today. We thought that we could come out, give a solid effort and get a win over American.” Ota continued, “We still have some areas that we need to improve on, but our game on Wednesday (at Monmouth) should be a good test for us. We’ll be ready to play and will be looking for a win to snap this losing streak.”
Lehigh returns to action on Wednesday when the Mountain Hawks play their first road game of the season in West Long Branch, NJ to take on Monmouth. Game time is set for 3:30.
