FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Lehigh dropped its third straight game on Wednesday afternoon and for the third straight time, it was a one-goal heartbreaker as the Mountain Hawks fell 14-13 to Fairfield in overtime. Lehigh fell behind 12-6 with 17:08 remaining before freshman Lauren Dykstra scored five times and assisted on another goal to force overtime. Both teams netted scores in the OT session before Fairfield’s Kristen Coleman scored with 1:50 remaining to secure the win. With the loss, the Mountain Hawks fall to 5-4 overall while the Stags improve to 5-1.
Lehigh took one more shot than Fairfield, 33-32, while the Stags scooped up 22 ground balls and the Mountain Hawks were credited with 19. Lehigh won 18 draw controls led by Jen Igalls’ four, while Dysktra and Tess McGrath both won three. Sophomore Kelsy Ferris was credited with 12 stops in goal for the Brown and White and Fairfield goal keeper Lauren Chatnik stopped 11 Mountain Hawk shots.
The Mountain Hawks jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the strength of goals by Christy Smith, Allison Thomas, Dykstra and Inneke Carmola. From there Fairfield ripped off six straight scores and with 8:16 left in the opening half was in front 6-4. Christy Smith pulled Lehigh to within one with her second score, but the Stags netted back-to-back goals in the last two minutes of the half to take an 8-5 lead into intermission.
Dykstra opened the second half with her second score of the game to make the score 8-6, but Fairfield again answered, this time with four consecutive scores to take a 12-6 lead with 17:08 left in the contest.
With 12:01 remaining, Dykstra began her offensive onslaught as she scored three straight goals in a time of 4:50 to bring Lehigh to within three at 12-9. Dykstra then fed Meghan Tenety for a goal to make the score 12-10, and the freshman tied the game with two more scores in a span of 16 seconds, the last coming with only 2:19 to go. That made the score 12-12 and sent the teams into overtime.
In the overtime, Fairfield struck first as Cristin Lucena scored off a feed from Coleman, but Thomas netted an unassisted score of her own to tie the score at 13. With 1:50 remaining in overtime, Coleman netted the eventual game-winner, sending Lehigh to its third consecutive one-goal loss.
Lehigh will be back in action on Friday afternoon when the Mountain Hawks play host to Canisius at the Ulrich Sports Complex. The opening draw control is set for 2:30 and all of the action will be broadcast live on Lehighsports.com.
