Lehigh Athletics Weekend Preview

3/4/2021 8:40:00 PM | Baseball, Athletics, Men's Cross Country, Men's Lacrosse, Men's Soccer, Men's Swimming and Diving, Men's Tennis, Softball, Women's Basketball, Women's Cross Country, Women's Golf, Women's Lacrosse, Women's Soccer, Women's Swimming and Diving, Women's Tennis, Volleyball

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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The first Patriot League championships of 2021 will be contested on Goodman Campus Friday, plus men's and women's soccer, men's and women's tennis and women's golf are the latest sports to kick off their campaigns. Catch up on all of it in this week's Lehigh Athletics Weekend Preview.

Baseball
Fresh off a 2-0 start to the season for the first time since 2016, the Mountain Hawks are back in action for two doubleheaders – Saturday at 11:30 a.m. in Washington, D.C. and Sunday at noon at Diamond Nation in Flemington, N.J. – against George Washington. Lehigh is led by reigning Patriot League Player of the Week Eric Cichocki (.556, 5-for-9, 2 BB, 5 SB) and Pitcher of the Week Mason Black (5 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 11 K). Black was also named National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball for his performance at Coppin State. Casey Rother was fantastic as well, hitting .364 with four hits, two home runs and seven RBIs against the Eagles. Black and Luke Rettig are Lehigh's probable starters for Saturday with Matt Svanson tabbed to throw Game 1 on Sunday. GW played its season-opener at No. 8 Virginia on Tuesday, falling 11-1. All-time, the Mountain Hawks are 1-3 against the Colonials with the previous matchup taking place in 2008.
Saturday: Watch Live | Live Stats

Women's Basketball
Looking to punch its ticket into the Patriot League's semifinal round for the third straight season, fourth-seeded Lehigh gets its postseason underway Sunday at Stabler Arena against fifth-seeded Holy Cross at 2 p.m. The Mountain Hawks (7-5) are led by a pair of Second Team All-Patriot League selections in senior Mary Clougherty and sophomore Frannie Hottinger, as well as All-Rookie team selection Mackenzie Kramer. Lehigh has played just two games since the end of January, splitting the weekend series with Lafayette two weeks ago. Holy Cross is led by Second Team All-Patriot League selection Avery LaBarbera and Patriot League Rookie of the Year Bronagh Power-Cassidy. All-time, Lehigh is 3-8 against the Crusaders in the Patriot League Tournament, but have won the last two matchups dating back to the 2014-15 season. A win Sunday for the Mountain Hawks would set-up a semifinal matchup at either No. 1 Bucknell or at home against No. 8 Loyola next Thursday, March 11.
Watch Live | Listen Live | Live Stats

Men's and Women's Cross Country
On Friday, Goodman Campus will host the Patriot League Cross Country Championships. Friday's races will begin with the women's 6K at 1 p.m. followed by the men's 8K at 2 p.m. This event was scheduled to be hosted by Lafayette, however inclement weather in the past two weeks has forced the event to be moved to Lehigh's Goodman Campus. This event will also be unique due to the course the athletes will be running on. Yes, we're ROAD COURSING! Both cross country teams have only completed one event prior to Friday's race. The Mountain Hawks hosted the Loyola Greyhounds in mid-February for an indoor 5K. The men's team finished fourth last year at the PLC meet, while the women finished fifth.
Live Results

Women's Golf
For the first time since March 10, 2020, Lehigh will take to the links as the Mountain Hawks will play in the Monmouth Hawk Spring Series Monday at Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Lakewood, N.J. The field for the one-day event includes two teams from host Monmouth plus Fairleigh Dickinson, Hartford, La Salle, Mount St. Mary's, Sacred Heart and St. John's and individuals from Rutgers, in addition to the five-player Lehigh entry.

Men's Lacrosse
Following a 24-10 victory last Saturday, in which the Mountain Hawks scored their most goals since 1997, No. 13 Lehigh will return home this Saturday at 1 p.m. for a huge Patriot League matchup against No. 10 Loyola. In the season opener, the Mountain Hawks opened a 13-1 lead against the Highlanders in a truly dominant performance, with 14 different Lehigh players scoring on the afternoon. Lehigh and Loyola will square off for the first time since 2019, as the Mountain Hawks search for the program's first-ever win against the Greyhounds. Lehigh and Loyola have perennially been two of the best programs in the Patriot League as of late, meeting in the 2014 and 2018 championship games. At least one of Lehigh or Loyola have appeared in seven of the last eight Patriot League title contests.
Watch Live | Live Stats

Women's Lacrosse
Lehigh will look to bounce back from a pair of home defeats to begin the season when it travels to La Salle on Sunday for a 1 p.m. opening draw. One week after dropping a high-scoring 19-17 final against Drexel, the Mountain Hawks fell to Saint Joseph's, 15-8. After each contest, graduate student Sondra Dickey was named Patriot League Midfielder of the Week (for the ninth and 10th times in her career) while senior Hannah Cermack was also named honorable mention last week after a career-high tying four assists (along with four draw controls and three groundballs). Both Dickey and junior Jenna Garden caused three turnovers against Saint Joseph's to lead the team. The Mountain Hawks are 6-4 all-time against La Salle, most recently beating the Explorers last season, 18-15, a game in which Cecily Redfern set a program record with 14 draw controls.
Watch Live | Live Stats

Men's Soccer
The defending Patriot League champion Mountain Hawks finally get back to work Saturday afternoon, taking on American on the road with a 1:30 p.m. start. Lehigh, who won both the Patriot League Tournament title and Regular Season title with a 13-5-3 record, graduates reigning Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year Will Smith as well as First Team All-Patriot League center-back Zarin Tuten but return reigning Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year and Third Team All-American forward Josh Luchini, Preseason Midfielder of the Year Stevo Bednarsky and Preseason All-League selection Nick Jennings. Led by Dean Koski in his 29th season at the helm of the program, seven Mountain Hawks make their collegiate debuts this season. The Mountain Hawks topped the Eagles in 2019 at Reeves Field, 2-1 in the league opener. AU was 3-11-2 last season and did not qualify for the Patriot League Tournament. The team was picked ninth out of 10 teams in the Patriot League Preseason Poll.
Watch Live | Live Stats

Women's Soccer
The Mountain Hawks are set to open their season on Saturday against the same team they faced in their last game in November of 2019. Sixteen months later, Lehigh and American will square off under the lights of Banko Field at 5:30 p.m. A competitive 2019 season saw the Mountain Hawks pick up some impressive wins over Bucknell (3-1), Boston University (1-0) and Holy Cross (1-0). The Bison are perennially among the Patriot League's best; BU was the defending league champions (marking Lehigh's first-ever win over the Terriers) while the Mountain Hawks handed the Crusaders their first and only Patriot League defeat of the regular season. Among Lehigh's top returnees is senior goalkeeper Miranda Royds, who led the Patriot League in saves last season (90), was second in save percentage (84.9) and third in goals against average (0.82).
Watch Live | Live Stats

Softball
After opening its season with a doubleheader sweep at Sacred Heart last Sunday, Lehigh heads to Seton Hall for a doubleheader Sunday beginning at noon. The Mountain Hawks outscored the Pioneers 18-2 last Sunday and were rewarded with Patriot League weekly awards for juniors Jaelynn Chesson and Gabriella Nori and freshman Brooke Cannon. Seton Hall went 0-5 at the Gamecock Invitational last weekend with losses to Longwood and nationally-ranked South Carolina and Duke.
Watch Live | Live Stats

Swimming and Diving
It's that time of year again, as the Lehigh swimming and diving teams will compete in the annual Brown and White Meet on Saturday inside Jacobs Pool. Saturday's event will look different than past years because of COVID protocols. The men will start their warmups at 11 a.m. and race from 12 to 1:30 p.m., while the women will warm up at 2 p.m. and race from 3 to 4 p.m. The men's team is coming off a season in which they went 6-1 in dual meets and finished sixth the Patriot League. The women finished third in the Patriot League and also had a 6-1 season during the dual meets.

Men's Tennis
The Lehigh men's tennis team will begin its season on Saturday against rival Lafayette inside the Lewis Tennis Center. Saturday's contest will begin at 5 p.m. and will serve as Lehigh's Senior Day. Last year, the Mountain Hawks were 5-5 before they had their season cut short due to COVID-19. The Brown and White return four of their top five players in Zack Elliott, Harry Wang, Gary Fishkin and Jacob Edelchik. Wang paced the team last year with seven singles wins, while Elliott and Fishkin each racked up six wins and Edelchik tallying five. The four men also count as the top two duo pairs in doubles for Lehigh.

Women's Tennis
The Lehigh women's tennis team returns to the courts on Saturday for the first time in nearly a year, as the Mountain Hawks will host the Fairfield Stags at noon inside the Lewis Tennis Center. Lehigh is coming off a season in which it had its season cut short at 6-6. Last year's team started the season with a 5-2 mark, the fastest the team had reached 5 wins in more than 15 years. The Mountain Hawks return two veteran student-athletes in Paula Gonzalez and Casey Zhong. Zhong tallied a 7-4 mark in singles last year and Gonzalez was 6-5. Lehigh will also look for big jumps from sophomores Junmoke James and Ella Imhof. James ended her first season with a 5-7 record, while Imhof totaled a 4-7 record.

Volleyball
After falling in both matches to open the spring 2021 season, Lehigh will get back to work with two important matchups against archrival Lafayette, at 7 p.m. on Friday at Kirby Sports Center and at 6 p.m. on Sunday at Grace Hall for Senior Night. Last time out, the Mountain Hawks fell to Colgate, 3-0 (20-25, 23-25, 11-25), fighting through the first two sets, but weren't able to get a win. Junior Ava Hudson currently leads the team with a .296 hitting percentage, adding 11 kills. Freshman setter Sarah Burau made her collegiate debut Sunday with 25 assists, while on the defensive side of the net, freshman Alina Smith leads the way with four blocks, while senior libero Allison Garrett has 17 digs. The Leopards are also searching for their first win of the season after falling to Holy Cross last weekend in back-to-back matches. The Mountain Hawks are winners of nine straight against Lafayette dating back to Oct. 21, 2015.
Friday: Watch Live | Live Stats
Sunday: Watch Live | Live Stats

Lehigh Athletics is excited to have our teams return to competition this semester! It will not be the same without the cheers of our loyal Lehigh fans coming from the stands. As we prepare for seasons unlike any other, Mountain Hawk fans still have the opportunity to make their mark on Lehigh's home venues. Support the Lehigh Athletics program by purchasing a fan cutout today!