Lehigh drops tight 2-1 final at La Salle

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PHILADELPHIA - The Lehigh women's soccer team played neck-and-neck with regional power La Salle on Thursday evening, but the three-time defending NCAA Tournament Explorers scored the game-winning goal in the 77th minute to come out victorious, 2-1. The loss drops the Mountain Hawks' record to 2-2-0. Freshman Sabrina Mertz created a foul in the box and was followed by junior Laura Courtney, who converted a penalty kick to account for Lehigh's goal. The Mountain Hawks' had several other scoring chances and finished the game with a 13-9 edge in shots.

"I'm proud of our effort. It's a tough place to play against a team that has a great belief and battles like La Salle," said Lehigh head coach Eric Lambinus. "We stood toe-to-toe with them. I was proud we came back from behind. However, what I told the team is that we have to find a way to win this game. We can't lose it. We played well enough and we battled. It wasn't pretty, but we absolutely had every opportunity to win. We have to be disappointed that we didn't, but use the disappointment to find a belief that we can win these games against these types of quality teams."

After three combined shots over the game's first 15 minutes, Lehigh earned two straight chances. The first came at the 15:57 mark from Mertz, who fired a shot that was saved by La Salle goalie Katie Getzinger. Less than 30 seconds later, senior Paige Elliott hit a crossbar.

The Explorers took advantage just 33 seconds after Elliott's crossbar as La Salle's Marykate Bateman gave her squad a 1-0 lead, driving a shot past Lehigh senior goalie Ani Nahapetian at 16:57.

After the goal, only four shots were fired over the final 28:03 as La Salle took a 1-0 lead into halftime.

The Mountain Hawks wouldn't go away, earning the tying goal midway through the second half at the 67:07 mark. After Lehigh won the ball in the midfield, a nifty combination play on the right side led to Mertz corralling a pass, turning and beating her defender. She was fouled, leading to Courtney converting a penalty kick for her second goal of the season.

La Salle answered 9:16 later behind a header from Madison Bower, making it 2-1 at 76:23. Nahapetian made a save just over one minute later to keep Lehigh's deficit at one, then Courtney got off a shot on goal in the 88th minute looking to tie. However, Getzinger made her seventh, and final, save of the evening, to preserve the Explorers' 2-1 victory.

"We've had games in the past when we've been outshot, but held on," said Lambinus. "That wasn't the case tonight. We hit the crossbar three times and missed another chance from inside the six. We need to have the confidence to put those balls away and not put as much pressure on our defense."

Final shots were 13-9 in favor of Lehigh while La Salle held a 3-0 edge in corner kicks. Nahapetian finished with two saves.

"It's a double-edged sword with these games," said Lambinus. "We love the fact that we're playing good teams and I think it prepares us for the Patriot League. We have a tough schedule, but it only helps us if we start winning these games. We need to have the belief and go into the league with confidence that we can not only play with these teams, but also beat them."

The Mountain Hawks will return to action on Sunday when they round out their four-game road swing at another Philadelphia school, Temple. Opening kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

Like Lehigh Women's Soccer on Facebook and follow on Twitter for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.

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Team Stats

Laura Courtney

Adrian Vitello

Sabrina Mertz

Grace Correll

Players Mentioned

Laura Courtney

Paige Elliott

Sabrina Mertz

Ani Nahapetian

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