BETHLEHEM, Pa. – After opening the season with three straight road contests, the Mountain Hawks will open up the home part of their schedule Wednesday night against the Retrievers of UMBC. Lehigh picked up its first victory of the season, a 5-1 triumph at Georgetown, in the Mountain Hawks last game on Saturday. After spreading its first three games over the first three weeks of the season, Lehigh now begins a stretch of three games in five days, all at home inside the Ulrich Sports Complex.
Five different players scored for Lehigh in Saturday’s win over the Hoyas. Georgetown scored the first goal of the game, but the Mountain Hawks battled back, tying things on sophomore Kara Zweizig’s second goal of the season. The Mountain Hawks took the lead for good when freshman Morgan Christopher was fouled by the Georgetown goalkeeper, drawing a penalty stroke, which senior Moira Garrity converted to give Lehigh a 2-1 advantage. The Mountain Hawks also got goals from junior Christy Smith, Christopher and sophomore Jen Cochran, while senior goalkeeper Stephanie Palmieri was outstanding in the cage, making eight saves to earn her first career win. For her efforts, Palmieri received honorable mention from the Patriot League.
Zweizig and Christy Smith lead the Mountain Hawks with two goals apiece, while Palmieri has made 20 saves and has a 1.96 goals-against average.
UMBC enters Wednesday’s game on a four-game losing streak to start the season. The Retrievers have lost to West Chester, Saint Joseph’s, Fairfield and Sacred Heart in their last game on Sunday. UMBC did score its first two goals of the season on Sunday, as senior Julie Moore and sophomore Danielle Guldner found the back of the cage in a 5-2 defeat.
Lehigh leads the all-time series 4-0, including a 3-2 win last year in Baltimore. The Mountain Hawks won the last meeting in Bethlehem 6-1 in 2004. Wednesday night’s tilt gets underway at 7:00 from the Ulrich Sports Complex. The game will be broadcast online at lehighsports.com with streaming audio and video powered by Yahoo! Sports.
