Lehigh University Athletics
Mountain Hawks open league play versus Bison
3/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh meets Bucknell in the 2009 Patriot League opener on Saturday afternoon at the Ulrich Sports Complex. The Mountain Hawks have not played at home since registering a 15-11 season-opening victory over the St. Joseph’s Hawks on February 15. Lehigh enters this weekend with a record of 2-1 after falling to ACC member Boston College last weekend by a score of 11-10 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Bucknell has won three of its first four games in the early going, with the lone loss coming at Penn State. Saturday’s contest begins a three-game road trip for the Bison.
Five different Mountain Hawks have scored five or more goals this season, led by senior Sara MacIntyre who has found the back of the net seven times. Freshman Kelly Draper and sophomores Lauren Dykstra and Allison Thomas have each scored six goals, while junior Inneke Carmola, who enters Saturday’s game with the nation’s tenth longest streak of consecutive games with a point (37) has added five scores. Carmola, who has scored at least one point in every game during her career, led the Brown and White with four goals in the matchup with BC last weekend.
Dykstra and Thomas lead the Mountain Hawks with 12 ground balls apiece, while Dykstra is the team leader in draw controls with eight. On defense Lehigh is led by senior captain Sarah Fudin who has totaled four caused turnovers and seven ground balls through three games. Fellow captain Tess McGrath has added two caused turnovers, while junior Carolyn Von Heil has picked up a pair of GBs. Kelsy Ferris has played the entire 186 minutes for Lehigh this season in goal, stopping 27 shots along the way. The junior netminder made a season-high 14 stops in the opener versus St. Joseph’s.
Bucknell has been led on offense by Bonnie Buechel who has scored nine goals, along with Chelsea Peters (seven goals, two assists) and Carol Donohue (five goals, four assists). Nine different Bison have scored at least one goal. Sophomore midfielder Julia Braun, the Patriot League’s Defensive Player of the Week, leads Bucknell with 16 ground balls and is second on the squad with six caused turnovers. In the win over Robert Morris last weekend, Braun totaled seven GBs and four caused turnovers. She also won two draw controls.
The Bison have connected on 12-of-24 free position shots, including 6-of-8 by Peters. In goal for Bucknell, Alyssa DeLorenz has started all four games and stopped over 53-percent of the shots she has faced during that time. In over 226 minutes of action, DeLorenz has sent back 39 shots and scooped up six ground balls.
Saturday’s game will be the 34th meeting all-time between the Mountain Hawks and Bison with the Brown and White leading the series 22-11, which includes an 11-10 victory last season in Lewisburg. In Patriot League matchups, the Bison have gotten the better of the Mountain Hawks in ten of 18 meetings.
Lehigh and Bucknell get things started at 1:00 on Saturday afternoon at the Ulrich Sports Complex on the brand new Frank Banko ’41 Field.
