Lehigh University Athletics
Mountain Hawks hard at work in preseason camp
8/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The first week of preseason camp is in the books for the Lehigh women’s soccer team. Most of the opening week has been spent training under near ideal weather conditions on the Kaufman practice fields. The Mountain Hawks will be looking to return to the Patriot League tournament after missing the postseason for the first time in four years in 2007 and after a week of training, head coach Manny Oudin is optimistic based on what he has seen so far in training.
“Things have been pretty positive,” said Oudin, who begins his seventh season as head coach. “We’ve seen good play from many of the returning players, as well as surprise performances from the incoming freshmen. The younger players have prepared themselves extremely well and are giving themselves an opportunity to be in the mix.”
Lots of the focus in camp has been on fitness, and Oudin sees a connection in that the players who were fit coming into camp have all done well in preseason training. Among the returning veterans, Oudin noted the work of senior Emily Means, junior Alex Warren and sophomores Stephanie DeLuca and Glynn Fitzer. Lehigh brought in a large class of ten freshmen, and thus far Oudin has indicated that Megan Cain, Jana Basubas, Ali MacLeod and Genna Pepe have been impressive through the early part of camp.
On Tuesday the Mountain Hawks played their first of two preseason scrimmages, as Lehigh went head-to-head with Seton Hall for three 30 minute periods.
“The two things we were looking to evaluate in our first scrimmage were our defensive organization and our game fitness,” said Oudin. “Our defensive organization was good. Seton Hall controlled a lot of the possession but we did well to not allow a lot of quality chances. Our game fitness was not where it needed to be and we’re working on raising that overall fitness level to a higher plane.
Lehigh will play its second preseason scrimmage on Saturday when the Mountain Hawks travel to Delaware. The regular season begins with a tough test on Friday August 29, when Big East member Rutgers visits the Ulrich Sports Complex for a 7:30 p.m. match.
