BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh steps away from Patriot League play for the first time in over two weeks on Wednesday night as the Mountain Hawks welcome the Rider Broncs to the Ulrich Sports Complex. The Mountain Hawks will be looking to bounce back from a 3-2 loss at rival Lafayette on Saturday, while also trying to build momentum heading into a critical league showdown at Holy Cross this weekend.
Junior Kalynn Davies scored her league-leading eighth goal of the season, but a 3-1 second half deficit was too much to overcome for Lehigh against Lafayette. The Mountain Hawks clawed within a goal as Kelly Fox scored her second goal of the year, but that was as close as the Mountain Hawks would get. Lehigh has scored at least two goals in each of its last four games, but the Mountain Hawks will need to tighten up their defense as the Brown and White have yielded eleven goals during that time.
Rider enters Wednesday’s game at 6-5 overall. The Broncs improved to 3-0 in the NEC with a 3-1 win at Siena on Sunday. Tricia Crotty leads the Broncs with five goals and 13 points, while Amanda Barretta was named the NEC’s Rookie of the Week after scoring a goal in the win over Siena. Senior Jennifer LoCastro has played every minute of every game in the goal cage for Rider.
Lehigh leads the all-time series over Rider 16-11-1. Last year, the Mountain Hawks snapped a four game losing streak to the Broncs with a 3-2 win here at the Ulrich Sports Complex. Christy Smith scored the decisive goal to give Lehigh its first win over Rider since 2001.
Wednesday’s game gets underway at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast online at Lehighsports.com with streaming powered by Yahoo! Sports.
