Lehigh University Athletics
30 years of Lehigh women's athletics
9/18/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
The 2002-03 seasons commemorate the 30th year of women’s athletics at Lehigh University. Over the years the number of opportunities available to the female athletes has increased. Lehigh currently offers 12 intercollegiate programs, compared to the 1973 season, when there was only field hockey. Who better to tell the story than the student-athletes who gave all they had to contribute to the school’s athletic success.
"One of the times I remember best is, in 1984, my freshman year, when we beat Delaware, at Delaware, in penalty strokes to win the ECC championship. It was so incredibly intense the entire game and it couldn’t have had a more fitting finish. I can still see the smiles on everyone’s faces when the penalty strokes were over. As a freshman, it was overwhelming to be a part of such a great team and a great season. I remember feeling relieved not to have been one of the players shooting but today, I’d pay a lot to be back there again now." -Carla (Juliani) Falco ’88, Field Hockey/Lacrosse
"My most memorable moment at Lehigh was winning the Patriot League Championship in 1997. Everything about that game was dramatic...we squared off at Stabler arena versus Lafayette and won in overtime on a last second shot! I will always remember our fans rushing the court and being on the bottom of the pile-up with Danielle Baldwin. Confetti was pouring from the ceiling and "We are the Champions" blasted from the speakers. It was an amazing moment…one I will never forget. Seeing our name in the NCAA Tournament brackets and running out to 12,000 fans as we took on UConn blew me away. What made the moments so memorable was that I was able to share them with such special people, my teammates." -Kelly Collins ‘00, Basketball
"Absolutely without a doubt my most memorable moment was winning the Patriot League Championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament at Washington State. It’s amazing how one win, one championship, can mean so much. Far removed from my playing days, it is all that really matters. Good times, bad times. One big shining moment, and the not so great details are softened, and the great details are accentuated. What I have learned in the last five years is that so few people compete at the varsity level in college, even fewer at a Division-I school. Even fewer accumulate a winning record. Even fewer win their conference championship, and so few participate in an official NCAA Tournament. Now that I am in the working world, outside my everyone-I-know-is-a-college-athlete bubble, I can appreciate my experience to the fullest. It has taken me a few years, but I have truly realized what a unique and tremendous opportunity I was given to play at an institution like Lehigh University. My most memorable moment was winning the Patriot League Championship, but my best accomplishment is playing at all." -Patty Watson ’99, Volleyball
"The Patriot League Championship race at Van Cortlandt Park in my junior year was certainly one of my most memorable moments. That year, our team was performing well, but winning a Patriot League title was truly an unexpected event. It was a day where every single woman on our team performed better than they ever had before, and where our efforts as a team came together as they never had before. In the end, we brought home Lehigh’s first Patriot League title in school history." -Gretchen (Repasky) Murphy ’93, XC/Track & Field
"I don’t have one standout moment, but several smaller events that stand out. They are not the spectacular winning-the-league-moments I pictured with that question, but when I thought about it, those weren’t the things that made playing memorable for me. They are both competitive memories and personal moments of the team. "My first match - nothing can match the first time you step out to compete - the anticipation, the anxiety of starting, the exhilaration of competing at the college level, proving myself to the older players. Another moment that stands out is congratulated by one of Lehigh’s most successful wrestlers for making First Team All-Conference after it was published in the Brown & White. It was a minor comment for someone to make, but because I did not know him and he was very well known for his accomplishments, it felt significant to be receive recognition for this achievement, as if at that moment we were equal as athletes." -Kerry (Loughman) O’Hearen ’88, Volleyball
"I’m sure many of Lehigh’s women athletes would have a hard time believing that our schedules in those first few years often didn’t even hit double digits. I think we played eight basketball games in 1974. In those days just being able to play was rather remarkable. Thanks to a rapidly growing youth program, expanded collegiate varsity programs, the debut of gold medal winning women’s Olympic teams and the introduction of professional teams, interest in women’s sports has grown exponentially in the last 30 years. This means there are many more opportunities for women to showcase their talent, on and off the field. You can’t imagine what it’s like for a 40 something ex-jockette to sit at the Women’s Final Four. On one side of the court I see the television cameras. And on the other, I watch little eight-year-old girls asking the players for autographs. I don’t know which warms my heart more." -Susan Sachs ‘77, Basketball, Field Hockey, Volleyball, Softball
"The pioneer years were rich in cooperation, energy, pride and enjoyment. The women who participated did so without a need for attention or reward. They came together for a common yearning, a sense of community, a willingness to compete and an outlet from rigorous academics. They chose Lehigh not for its athletics, but for its academics. But compete they did and with remarkable results. It was they who shaped the programs as they stand today. They proved good students can be good athletes, working hard in the classroom and on the playing field." -Judy (Turner) Baxter (1977-85) Coach-Field Hockey, Lacrosse
"Lehigh has a solid, exciting and very successful womens athletics program. In combination with Lehigh’s competitive academic reputation and appealing student life, hundreds of females are drawn each year to attend. Womens athletics at Lehigh have grown tremendously over the past 30 years and I am confident they will continue to do so at record pace." -Casey Bahrenburg ‘97, Swimming
"The opportunities and interest in all women’s athletics, and interest in them, has grown immensely. Just working at camps and watching the dedication and focus of the young female athletes because they know that they can have a future in athletics really brings a sense of pride to being a female collegiate athlete." -Anne Tierney ‘03, Basketball
"Mostly what I remember is working with the student-athletes. I remember their desire, theirs goals, their expectation to succeed in the classroom as well as in athletics. I was fortunate enough to win several championships, and those were all great moments, but what I like to look back on is just the athletes and their willingness to compete." -Karen Adams, Coach Volleyball, Tennis, Softball, Sr. Associate Athletic Director
