Lehigh University Athletics
Lehigh meets No. 3 Tar Heels on Saturday
2/26/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Lehigh returns to action on Saturday afternoon when it travels to Baltimore to take on the No. 3 ranked and currently undefeated North Carolina Tar Heels. The Mountain Hawks are searching for their first win of the season, after being defeated by the St. Joseph’s Hawks and then by the No. 14 ranked Brown Bears, losing those games by a total of two goals. Head coach Kevin Cassese offered his thoughts on Lehigh’s challenging early season schedule. “That’s the idea to play the most challenging schedule we can to prepare ourselves for the rigors of Patriot League play. We want to be as prepared as possible once the league games begin and a schedule like this will do that for us.”
The Mountain Hawks faced a tall order at the beginning of the fourth quarter when the Bears netted two goals to make the score 12-6. However, Lehigh picked up momentum and was able to close the gap with five straight scores. Brown senior Kyle Hollingsworth slowed Lehigh’s drive when he scored an unassisted goal with 3:26 left in the game, but Lehigh junior Chris Lubin, the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week, scored his last goal of the game with 20 seconds left to bring the Brown and White within one. The Mountain Hawks had one final chance to send the game into overtime, but Lubin’s shot was saved by the Brown goalie with no time remaining.
The 12 Lehigh goals were scored by four players as Lubin scored a career-high five goals, while classmate Brian Bienemann found the back of the net three times and senior Ricky Cornetta and freshman Cameron Lao-Gosney each scored two goals for the Brown and White.
Although Saturday’s game will be played at a neutral site, it will be Lehigh’s first opportunity to play away from home this season. Cassese is excited for the opportunity it will provide his team. “We’re excited about it. It’s a great fit for us to travel to St. Paul’s School in Maryland because we have several players currently on our team from the area and it’s also a spot we recruit in.” He continued, “This will be our first road trip of the season so it’s a great team building experience for our guys to be together for that amount of time.”
The Tar Heels are currently 4-0 after they defeated the 2008 Patriot League regular-season champions, Navy, and the 2008 Patriot League Tournament champions, Colgate, after playing both teams last weekend. Following those games, North Carolina senior Bart Wagner, who scored six goals on only 12 shots, was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Lacrosse Player of the Week. Wagner is also currently tied for first place in the ACC in game-winning goals and tied for second place in goals per game.
After having played a Duke team that was ranked in the top-five a season ago, Cassese and the Mountain Hawks will draw upon that experience when they play the No. 3 team in the country this weekend. “They are two completely different teams, but just the sheer factor having played a top-ranked team like Duke will serve us well this time around. We can look at the success we had in the first half against Duke and know that we’ve done well before in this situation. We just need to put together a full four quarters.”
This is the fifth meeting between Lehigh and North Carolina. They last played against one another in 2000, when the Tar Heels defeated the Mountain Hawks 11-10.
With one week off between games, Cassese and the rest of the team have been hard at work on the practice field. Cassese mentioned what he was looking to improve upon from Lehigh’s first two games. “We’re looking for a total team effort. The story of our first two games was that we showed signs of great play in some areas, but not in every area. In week one I thought we had good play out of our defense, but not our offense, and then last week we had solid play from our offense, but not as solid from our defense.” He continued, “We’re going to start winning some games here in the near future as soon as we get solid play on both ends.”
The Mountain Hawks take on the Tar Heels at St. Paul’s School in Baltimore, with the opening face-off set for 1:00 on Saturday.
