Lehigh University
No. 3 Navy
Mountain Hawks rally comes up short in PLT
4/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
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HAMILTON, N.Y. – Down 12-7 to Navy with 8:34 remaining, Lehigh unleashed a furious rally and closed to within 12-11 with 31 ticks on the clock, but the Mountain Hawks were unable to get one more score and fell to the Midshipmen on Friday afternoon at Tyler’s Field in the semifinals of the 2009 Patriot League Tournament. Sophomore Lauren Dykstra found the back of the net three times to give her 67 goals for the season, while seniors Meagan Tenety and Sara MacIntyre and freshman Lauren Murray all scored twice for the Mountain Hawks, as their season comes to a close with a record of 11-6. Erin Rawlick led the Midshipmen with four scores as Navy improves to 13-4 and moves onto Sunday’s PL Championship game.
Lehigh totaled 24 shots for the game, led by Dykstra with seven, while Kelly Draper unleashed six. The Mountain Hawks scooped up 21 ground balls led by Dykstra with four, while two Mountain Hawks, Leigh Ann Torcivia and Kindall Healy won two draw controls apiece. In goal for Lehigh Kelsy Ferris stopped six shots.
Rawlick took a game high 11 shots for the Midshipmen, while Kierstin King scooped up a team-best five ground balls. Rawlick was the team leader in draw controls with five and in goal Elaina Ponchione stopped nine shots.
Lehigh head coach Jill Redfern offered her thoughts afterwards. “Navy pounded on us early today with the draw controls and that made it difficult to play from behind all afternoon. The draw controls were a problem all day long, and usually we don’t get out-ground balled or out-draw controlled.”
She added, “Our seniors stepped up down the stretch during that comeback. The seniors understand the urgency of the tournament; unfortunately we had too many execution mistakes throughout the game.”
Rawlick opened the scoring for Navy with a goal just 1:15 in on an assist from Mandrin Hill, and Mary Ruttum put the Midshipmen ahead 2-0 with a score of her own 44 seconds later. Dykstra scored Lehigh’s first goal with 23:54 left on the first half clock on a free position shot to cut the Navy lead in half. Following a third goal by the Midshipmen, Lehigh got to within one yet again as Lauren Murray took a feed from Tenety and found the back of the net, making it a 3-2 game.
Two straight scores by Navy put the Mountain Hawks in a three-goal hole, but Murray struck again, this time on a feed from Carmola, and with 12:55 left until halftime, the score was 5-3. The teams exchanged goals once again with Dani Vivonetto scoring for Navy and Dykstra netting goal number-66 on the season for Lehigh. Like her first goal, Dykstra’s second score came on a free position attempt, this one with 1:39 remaining before halftime to make it a 6-4 game, which is how it remained as the teams retired for intermission.
Draper opened the second half with a score 31 ticks in to pull Lehigh within two at 6-5, but Kierstin King answered for Navy to make it a 7-5 game. MacIntyre scored her 30th goal of the season to pull Lehigh within one yet again, but Navy answered with three more scores to pull in front 10-6. Sophomore Allison Thomas got Lehigh to within three with her first score of the afternoon with 11 minutes to go, but back-to-back goals by the Midshipmen put Lehigh in a five-goal hole with 8:34 to go.
From there Lehigh unleashed a serious rally as Dykstra scored on a free position shot with 7:19 to go and MacIntyre followed with another score with 1:44 on the clock. Lehigh then intercepted a Navy pass, and Kindally Healy fed Tenety for a score to make it 12-10. Tenety then got Lehigh to within one off a feed from Carmola with 31 ticks remaining, but the Mountain Hawks were unable to get the ball back and time ran out.
Following the tournament, seniors Sara MacIntyre and Meagan Tenety were named to the 2009 Patriot League All-Tournament Team.
