Lehigh University Athletics
A look back at Lehigh's record-setting '06 season
6/15/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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Firmly entrenched as one of the top softball programs in the northeast, the 2006 season was another outstanding year for Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks won a school and Patriot League record 43 games, and rolled to their eighth straight league regular season championship and third straight tournament crown. The Brown and White added to their legend in their third straight NCAA Regional appearance, shocking No. 13 Texas A&M twice to become the first Patriot League team to win its first round NCAA Regional game as well as the first to win two games in an NCAA Regional. Despite a pair of heartbreaking losses to
“The thing that impressed me the most about this team was that they just decided they were going to commit to being the best they possibly could be,” said head coach Fran Troyan, who recently completed his tenth season as head coach. “Everyone accepted their roles and the players executed their roles and were willing and able to sacrifice personal goals for the sake of the team.”
The Mountain Hawks’ record setting season began rather inconspicuously in
Sweeney, faced with the daunting task of replacing former All-Region pitcher Emily Ling ‘05, started in the circle on opening day, earning a win over Robert Morris and never looking back on her way to the finest single season for a pitcher in Patriot League history. In Lehigh’s sixth game of the season, and just her third start, Sweeney pitched a no-hitter allowing two walks and striking out 12 in Lehigh’s 1-0 eight inning win over Maine.
The following weekend, Lehigh went 4-1 at the Delaware State Bash at the Beach to run its record to 11-4. The Mountain Hawks showed the ability to win both pitcher’s duels and slugfests, as the Mountain Hawks edged Big East member Rutgers 1-0 in their first game, behind the first career home run from sophomore Megan Conrad and a three-hitter from Sweeney in the circle. Later in the weekend, junior Julie Sterrett delivered the first of many clutch hits in 2006, a three-run eighth inning walk-off home run in a 12-10 win over Monmouth. The following week, Lehigh split a doubleheader at
First up on the Mountain Hawks’ Patriot League slate was a trip to their upstart archrivals
Lehigh opened up its Patriot League home schedule the following weekend, with Bucknell visiting Kaufman Field. The Bison challenged Lehigh in all four games, but the Mountain Hawks mustered enough to win every single one. In the series finale, the two teams battled through seven scoreless innings before Lehigh pushed a run across in the eighth. Arico tossed eight shutout innings, and a squeeze bunt from junior Lauren Haney scored freshman Whitney Lowe to give LU a 1-0 win and a series sweep.
The Bucknell sweep gave Lehigh 42 consecutive Patriot League regular season wins, a league record that began in April 2004. The win streak would reach 44, as Lehigh grinded out a 3-1, 11 inning win at Holy Cross, but the following day the Crusaders pushed across an unearned run in the seventh inning, to beat the Mountain Hawks and put an end to the streak.
With a sizeable lead in the league standings, Lehigh clinched its eighth straight regular season championship with a four-game sweep of Colgate at Kaufman Field. The Mountain Hawks outscored the Raiders 16-2, while in the circle Sweeney and Arico continued to assert themselves as the Patriot League’s top two hurlers. Sweeney tossed two shutouts to improve to 22-3. Her 22 wins established a new school and league record, and she also racked up 175 strikeouts to break the school record. Arico completed the sweep and clinched the title with an eight inning two-hit shutout.
With the title already clinched, Lehigh wrapped up the Patriot League regular season at longtime rival Army. Though the Mountain Hawks had little to play for in the standings, Lehigh continued to play aggressively and swept all four games from the Black Knights, knocking them down to fourth place in the league standings.
While the Mountain Hawks took care of business in their weekend Patriot League series, it was the midweek doubleheaders where Troyan’s team would fine-tune its craft and prepare for a postseason run. Lehigh won two of three meetings with perennial Ivy League power Princeton, winning a single game in
“In the loss at Rider (second game of a doubleheader) we didn’t play well collectively as a team,” explained Troyan. “The players really decided then that their performance wasn’t good enough and became committed to bringing their best every day, and practicing better and competing better.”
Prior to hosting the Patriot League tournament, Sweeney was named the Patriot League’s Pitcher of the Year and was one of seven Mountain Hawks to earn All-League honors. Sweeney entered the postseason with a 24-4 record and 0.93 earned run average. A six-time Patriot League Pitcher of the Week, Sweeney led the league in nearly every major pitching category. Her partner in crime in the pitcher’s circle Arico joined her on the All-League first team, as did Wieder, Sterrett and sophomore centerfielder Kate Marvel. Juniors Heather Hamasaki and Lauren Haney went on to earn second team honors at third base and designated player, respectively.
Top seeded Lehigh drew Army in the first round of the Patriot League tournament and as she had proved so many times this season, Sweeney showed no signs of fright on the big stage. The
“What Lisa did was set the tone from the beginning that if anyone was going to beat Lehigh, they had to beat the Pitcher of the Year,” said Troyan. “Then, Kate went out and pitched a great game against
The next day, as it was each of the previous two years, Lehigh and Army squared off for the championship. The Mountain Hawks would put five runs on the board, and Sweeney took care of the rest, as Lehigh won its third straight crown 5-1 and the Brown and White were headed back to the NCAA Regionals.
After trips to
Lehigh was not to be intimidated. The Mountain Hawks scored two runs in the top of the first inning, on a two-out, two-strike double by Sterrett and would never look back. Lehigh built a 4-0 lead behind Arico, who was given the game one start because of her ability to keep the Aggie bats off balance by changing speeds. Arico pitched six innings and after Texas A&M crept within one, Sweeney came out of the bullpen to save the game and give Lehigh arguably its biggest win in school history.
“That win demonstrated that if you do the right things for the reasons and put hard work in, you can peak at the right time,” notes Troyan.
The next day, playing in the winner’s bracket, Lehigh played a ten inning thriller with the host Minutewomen. Sweeney matched zeroes through seven innings with UMass ace Brandice Balschmiter. UMass finally got to the Lehigh freshman for two runs in the eighth, but with two out, it was Sterrett again delivering a two-run double to tie, and prolong the game. In the tenth, UMass seemingly broke the game open with four runs, but Lehigh had one more battle left. The Mountain Hawks scored two runs and had the bases loaded, but could not complete the comeback, losing 6-4 and falling into an elimination game with Texas A&M.
Surely, Lehigh could not repeat the impossible.
In the rematch the Aggies scored first, only to see Lehigh tie the game at two on Sterrett’s seventh home run of the year – tying her with Wieder and two others for the school single-season record. After Texas A&M took the lead again, Lehigh battled back behind RBI singles from Wieder and Sterrett to take a 4-3 lead. Arico continued her strong work against the potent Aggie line-up and with the help of several defensive gems late in the game; Lehigh eliminated the Aggies by the same 4-3 score.
The next day, Lehigh needed to defeat host UMass twice, but the Mountain Hawks magical run came to an end with a 3-0 defeat.
Lehigh’s season came to an end at 43-14, the most wins in school and league history. Their two surprising wins over Texas A&M, the Mountain Hawks became media darlings, earning praise in two stories on ESPN.com. Four Mountain Hawks earned NFCA Mid-Atlantic All-Region honors: Sweeney, Wieder, Sterrett and Marvel. Sweeney’s outstanding freshman campaign wrapped up at 26-6 with a 1.14 ERA, 228 strikeouts and nine shutouts. Wieder scored a league-best 34 runs, in addition to her hitting prowess (.331-7-39). Sterrett ended the year as the Patriot League’s leader in hitting (.369) and RBI (44). Marvel, the spark-plug atop the Mountain Hawks lineup, batted .360 and ranked among the national leaders with nine triples.
Success was not limited to the diamond though, as Marvel and senior Ali Linsk garnered ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District first team honors. As a team, Lehigh shattered its own department record with a 3.52 team grade point average in the spring semester – despite playing 57 games in a ten-week span.
Troyan loses just three seniors from this year’s team, but all three will leave a lasting impact on the program.
“Mary Wieder was a fierce competitor on the field,” said Troyan. “Kate Arico, she beat Texas A&M twice and Ali was the glue that held everything together behind the scenes. Their overall leadership and attitude will be hard to replace.”
The Mountain Hawks do return eight positional starters (including the designated player) and will be led in 2007 by group of eight seniors, who have been to the NCAA Regionals every year since arriving at Lehigh.
