Lehigh University Athletics Blog

Check out this page for the latest behind-the-scenes scoop with Lehigh Athletics and for stories that don't make the headlines as told by members of the Lehigh Athletics Department staff as well as guest contributors affilliated with the department.  Your feedback is welcomed at sports@lehigh.edu


Patriot League play begins for Lehigh men’s basketball – January 7
Post by Matt Kerr, Lehigh Radio Broadcaster

And now…the real season begins. Lehigh opens Patriot League play Saturday night at home against American.

Lehigh appears to be as ready for league play as I’ve ever seen them. They are at .500 heading into league play for the first time since the Patriot League championship season of 2003-2004.

They have committed to sharing the basketball. Sophomore point guard Marquis Hall has an outside shot at breaking Lehigh’s single-season assist record, which has stood for 14 years. Hall has 70 assists through 14 games. In nine of their 14 games, nine or more players have scored. Six different players have led the team in scoring in at least one game and three players are averaging in double figures.

Zahir Carrington, the sophomore forward is coming off a career-high 27 points versus Princeton. He’s the first frontcourt player to score that many points for Lehigh in almost 17 years. His frontcourt mate, Bryan White scored a career-high 23 points in the last non-conference road game against Columbia.

Freshman Rob Keefer has twice won Patriot League rookie of the week honors. Coming off a career-high 16 points off the bench against Princeton, he may get a third one before league play begins.

Stabler Arena is once again a tough place for opponents to play. Lehigh is 6-1 at home so far this season and the lone loss was in double overtime to Quinnipiac in late November.

Lehigh is healthy. Only one player in the rotation has missed a game because of injury through the first 14.

Heading into Patriot League play, Holy Cross has been the most successful team. They are 9-3 with one more non-league game to play against a Maryland team that has already lost to American. Colgate could also be a nine-win team when league play begins. They have eight wins now and play a struggling Harvard team as their final non-conference match-up.

The surprise of the pre-conference season is the slow start for Bucknell. The Bison are just 5-9 heading into league play.

Lafayette got everybody’s attention with an 8-3 start. They’ve lost three in a row but took a lead into the second half against nationally ranked Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh before losing. They’re doing it from beyond the arc; shooting 41% from there, led by guard Andrew Brown whose attempted 110 three’s in 13 games and made 44% of them.

So it looks as though the next eight weeks will be challenging. If you can’t make it to a game…please be listening.

TO RETURN TO THE LEHIGH STUDENT-ATHLETE BLOGS HOME, CLICK HERE.

Tricia Smith (WBB) works her way back from difficult injury – December 2
Post by Jeff Tourial, Lehigh Athletics


Tricia Smith had never experienced anything like that before.  In over fourteen years of playing organized basketball, she’d never missed a game.  And it wasn’t just basketball.  Smith was a three-sport standout in high school, and even donned the pads as a wide receiver in football practice at Tri-Valley High School in Ohio, just to see what it’d be like.
 
As a freshman at Lehigh, Smith quickly asserted herself as a starter who sparked the team with her defensive tenacity and all-out hustle.
 
Then, while playing a pick-up basketball game in Lehigh’s Taylor Gym in August of 2006, she heard a pop, and quickly collapsed to the ground. Something wasn’t right.  Her first instinct was to shake it off and continue playing.  But those playing in the game with her knew better.  Something was seriously wrong.

The next day, Smith discovered she’d likely torn the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee (she had).  Just like that, before practice had begun to start her sophomore year, her season was finished. 
 
For Smith, the toughest part was not dealing with the pain in her knee and the endless rehab, although that was certainly no fun; it was watching her teammates struggle on the court and knowing there was nothing she could do about it.  Lehigh missed her presence on the court – and that of point guard Claire Sullivan, who suffered a similar pre-season injury, and struggled to a seventh-place finish in the Patriot League.  Despite the challenges, Smith adjusted to a season on the bench, watching and learning and doing all she could to support her teammates.  Throughout the campaign, she asserted herself as a leader, despite being relegated to a supporting role from the bench.
 
She worked hard to ready herself for her junior campaign this season, being elected a team captain by her teammates prior to the start of the season.  While healthy enough to play and contribute, she was nowhere near 100% on the floor.  Although she would never complain or talk about it, she was still in serious pain.
 
Now, in addition to a knee that will never be the same and requires a clunky brace during game play, Smith was battling a new injury – shin splints.  The best medicine, of course, was rest.  Smith missed several days of practice each week in the early part of the season, but would always return to the floor to help the team in any way she could.  She never outwardly complained about her injuries – which for a time were believed to have been stress fractures – but the pain was intense.
 
Smith felt good enough to practice a couple of days last week, and was excited for a pair of games in the Sunshine State.  On Friday, she had a monster game in a win over North Florida.  The captain yanked down a career-high 12 rebounds while scoring a season-high 14 points, as the Mountain Hawks snapped a two-game slide. 
 
As a freshman she constantly led the team in steals, and this year seems to be no different.  On one play, Smith raced in front of a UNF pass to make the theft, flipping the ball back onto the court as she flew head-first over the press row table and into an unsuspecting fan in the front row – knocking him clear out of his seat.

The effort to track down that loose ball epitomizes Tricia Smith – it’s the only way she knows how to play.  In the process of knocking the gentleman over, she also took out a chair on press row, landing on her head.  Those on the Lehigh bench immediately jumped up, with thoughts of another injury clearly on their mind.  But, in typical Smith fashion, she first made sure the fan was alright and placed the chair back in its proper place before busting out into her trademark grin. 
 
She was having fun again.
 
Her night was made all the better as Lehigh picked up the win, with the end of the five-game road trip in sight. 
 
But the pain wasn’t nearly gone.  She quietly confessed that she had a hard time walking after the game, and jumping at practice on Saturday afternoon was out of the question.
 
Sunday presented another test for Smith – Lehigh’s second game in less than 48 hours.  After playing thirty minutes a day and a half prior, and without much recovery time, how would she respond?
 
It didn’t take long to find out, as Smith came away with three steals and scored nine points – all in the first half. Jacksonville was a quick, athletic team, and Lehigh knew it had its collective hands full coming in with a team that already boasted wins over opponents from the ACC (Miami) and SEC (Florida) this season.  But even as the Dolphins pulled away late with a 20-point lead in the final moments, there was Smith, giving a gutsy 34-minute effort with her tenacious defense and doing all she could to help her team right up until the final buzzer. 
 
And, despite the pain, she was clearly having fun in the process.  If she can continue to contribute meaningful minutes, the Mountain Hawks might be back to their winning ways before long.
 
Smith and the Mountain Hawks have played but one game in Stabler Arena so far this season, but they return home for a slew of contests this month.  In fact, Lehigh will play six of its next seven games in the home whites – including three in the next week.
 
Come check this team out in December if you can.  Maybe – just maybe – you’ll have as much fun as Smith.
 
As always, I welcome your feedback.  Feel free to contact me via the link above.
 
TO RETURN TO THE LEHIGH STUDENT-ATHLETE BLOGS HOME, CLICK HERE.

Thoughts from the 143rd meeting of Lehigh and Lafayette – November 17
Post by Steve Degler, Lehigh Athletics Broadcaster
 
Lehigh and Lafayette have now met on the gridiron 143 times. I consider myself very lucky to have been part of three of them. Unfortunately for Lehigh, they have all been losses. For the first time since the 1940's, Lehigh has dropped four straight to its archrival from Easton.
 
The 2007 edition played before more than 16,000 fans at Goodman Stadium wasn't as shocking as the last-minute loss two years ago on the same field or as surprising as the second half steamroller when the Leopards became to blow open a close game last year.
 
This one stings Lehigh fans in a different way. The Mountain Hawks did not play a bad game at all. They were disciplined (two penalties), they did not turn the ball over and they player hard. But they lost on a Lafayette touchdown with 3:30 to play. 21-17 Leopards. A streak of nine straight winning seasons snapped. Another year to go before "Wait till next year" arrives.
 
As a broadcaster, you have absolutely no control over the outcome of the game. You always want to see "your team" come out on top. It makes the game much easier to call.
 
Over the past three seasons, I have had the good fortune to meet many of the Lehigh players during the weekly football luncheons at Starters. What an impressive group of fine young men and student-athletes! I find them to be cordial and very talkative. They are most helpful in preparing me for the next game, sharing thoughts about their pasts, presents and futures.
 
So after another bitter loss in this fantastic rivalry, you have to feel sorry for the Lehigh seniors. They went 0-4 against Lafayette. For some, that will be the legacy of the class of 2008. That's too bad, because they deserve much more than that. They played their hearts out on Saturday afternoon and came up short. They didn't lose. The Leopards found a way to win. It was the only time this season Lehigh won the turnover battle (+1), but lost the war.
 
Sedale Threatt, not 100% much of the season, gave the Mountain Hawks a gritty effort. Lehigh was able to gain over 100 yards on the ground against the fourth best rushing defense in the country. But the end result did not favor the Brown and White.
 
As the 20th season of Lehigh football at Goodman Stadium comes to an end and we are done looking back at the best home games in those two decades, we must turn our attention to next year.
 
While Lehigh will suffer some losses to graduation, there are many key players returning. The defense will have linebackers Tim Diamond, Matt Cohen and Heath Brickner back. B.J. Benning and Brian Jackson return along the defensive line. Quadir Carter and Brendan VanAckeren will provide a solid nucleus in the secondary. Offensively, three of the five starting linemen are back and several receivers will return. Freshmen running back Jaren Walker showed a lot of promise as well. And head coach Andy Coen will try to shore things up with his next recruiting class.
 
The atmosphere at Goodman today was amazing. You could see and feel how much Lehigh wanted to win this game. I talked to a friend of mine who watched the game on television. He said he could tell there was a high energy level in that stadium. We could sense it all the way at the very top of Goodman Stadium. In the end, Lafayette got those all so important bragging rights. This year.
 
The Mountain Hawks are already planning to make meeting number 144 finish with a different, and happier, ending.
 
TO RETURN TO THE LEHIGH STUDENT-ATHLETE BLOGS HOME, CLICK HERE.

Lehigh men’s hoops shows promise in home opener - November 15
Post by Matt Kerr, Lehigh Radio Broadcaster
 
Lehigh’s team is young. Nine of thirteen players on the roster are freshmen and sophomores. But they played older than they are. Sophomore Marquis Hall took the team on shoulders down the stretch. He shook off a poor shooting night (3 of 10 from the floor) and made a couple of huge baskets at crunch time and sank three free throws in the final minute. In his post-game radio interview, a soft-spoken Marquis characteristically turned the spotlight elsewhere, crediting his coach and his teammates.
 
There were more than 800 fans at Stabler Arena last night. That’s a good early season crowd. The players appreciate the support. As has become custom, the players all high-fived the students who sit in the section behind the Lehigh basket, before leaving the court at the end of the four-point win.
 
Last night’s game was my first opportunity to congratulate my on-air partner Greg Falkenbach on his selection to the Lehigh Hall of Fame. While obviously pleased by the honor, Greg questioned how a guy who never led his Lehigh teams in scoring got into the Hall. He was too modest to note that his name is still in the Lehigh basketball record book 35 years after he last played a game. He still holds the Lehigh single-game and single-season rebound records. The way the game has changed I always tell Greg those records will never be broken.
 
Lehigh basketball really is a family affair. There were a lot of parents on hand to watch their sons play. But they weren’t alone. Coach Brett Reed’s parents were here from Michigan to watch their son get his first win as a college head coach. Assistant coach Matt Logie’s mother and grandmother were here from the state of Washington to watch the pride of Mercer Island triumphantly return to Stabler Arena. And former player and coach Brad Szalachowski was on hand to watch his brother Matt score a career-high 14 points.
 
The home opener was not on cable or over-the-air television. But you didn’t have to be at Stabler Arena to watch every play. Lehigh Athletics produced a very high-quality Web cast of the game. This was a three-camera production that brought the people watching at home right to the action. The Web cast included the post-game interviews with Marquis Hall and Coach Reed that Greg and I conducted for the radio broadcast. After seeing me on camera, the viewers know why my entire broadcasting career has been spent in radio.
 
By the time Lehigh next plays at home, we’ll have a pretty good idea of what kind of season this might be. The next three games are on the road against St. Francis of PA, Albany and (gulp) Maryland. A win in one or two of those games will signal these Mountain Hawks could fly high.
 
I won’t be along for the ride Saturday as I’ll be at Goodman Stadium to do the radio broadcast of the 143rd Lehigh-Lafayette football game. But I’ll talk to you from Albany Tuesday night.
 
TO RETURN TO THE LEHIGH STUDENT-ATHLETE BLOGS HOME, CLICK HERE.

A Few Minutes with Murray - September 30
Post by Jeff Tourial, Lehigh Athletics
 
From the first time I saw a football game at Lehigh’s Goodman Stadium in 2001, it didn’t take me long to realize that it’s a special place.  There have been a lot of great games over the years at Murray H. Goodman Stadium since it opened on October 1, 1988, and more times than not, the home team has walked away winners.  In fact, after Saturday’s thrilling last-minute win over Harvard, Lehigh has a 74-31-1 all-time record at Goodman (26-10 in games I’ve seen in person).  Goodman Stadium has hosted two NCAA playoff games so far, has been home to eight Patriot League championship teams, and a Lambert Cup-winning team (awarded annually to the top team in the East).
 
Shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, while fans continued to file in from their tailgates and the Marching 97 was preparing to take the field for its pre-game routine, I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Mr. Goodman, who makes his home in Florida.  ABethlehem native, Murray Goodman attended Lehigh following a World War II stint in the Air Force, and graduated with a degree in business administration in 1948.  He was a varsity basketball player (and later, a captain) during his time here, and was clearly well-respected then, as he is now.  The University’s most generous living donor, Goodman and I talked about his commitment to Lehigh through the years and recounted stories about just how special the University is to so many people. 
 
During the course of our chat, I asked him why he has been so willing to invest in the infrastructure of the University – and Athletics specifically – and his answer was simple: “I want Lehigh to be on top.”
 
We talked about the educational mission of Athletics, development of leaders, construction of the Rauch Business Center (including the creation of the Murray H. Goodman Center for Real Estate Studies), the creation of what is now Lehigh’s Goodman Campus thanks to his generosity in 1983, and of course, the wonderful football stadium that also bears his name.  Clearly, the environment on this day is what he envisioned with his generous gift to help build the stadium following the 1987 season.
 
After our discussion, I took a few moments to soak in the atmosphere around me: some of the leaves on South Mountain had begun to change colors, the band was playing, the public address system was booming, and the TV cameras were on.  Soon, Andy Coen led the Mountain Hawks onto the field, and just like that, it was game time.  You’d be hard-pressed to find a better setting for a college football game on a Saturday afternoon in autumn than Goodman Stadium in late September (yes, it finally felt like a late September afternoon that day). 
 
Not surprisingly, Mr. Goodman’s vision and commitment has had an extraordinary impact on the Athletics Department at LehighUniversity through the years.  And not surprisingly, this day ended with another Lehigh football win.  I hope Mr. Goodman enjoyed the victory; I know we all have benefited greatly from his belief in the educational mission and importance of Athletics at Lehigh University.
 
As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback.  You may contact me via the link above.
 
Jeff

TO RETURN TO THE LEHIGH STUDENT-ATHLETE BLOGS HOME, CLICK HERE.

Ch-ch-changes – August 23
Post by Jeff Tourial, Lehigh Athletics

They tell me that a new year is destined to bring about change.  Out with the old, and in with the new, they say.  New, as in the new school year at Lehigh is here (where did the summer go?); campus is buzzing once again, as freshmen moved in today.  Out with the old, and in with the new.  The Class of 2007 is gone, for the most part.  Enter the Class of 2011.  Wide-eyed.  Nervous.  Excited.  That actually sounds a lot like me, when I think about the new Lehigh Athletics podcast channel we launched on iTunes last week.  This new technology, or new to us, anyway, allows us to post audio and video content that can be downloaded to an iPod (hence the name) or played on a desktop computer.  It’s pretty cool; the possibilities are endless.  Our plans call for weekly previews, coach and student-athlete interviews, chats with Goodman Dean of Athletics Joe Sterrett, and more.  Figuring out how to manage all of that, on top of everything else we’re trying to do, can be quite a challenge.  But that’s the fun part. 
 
The new school year has brought changes to our coaching staffs, too.  We have four new coaches in place, going back to last spring:Jenny Maurer (volleyball), Kevin Cassese (lacrosse), Brett Reed (basketball), and Liz Meltzer (rowing).  Ok, so Brett and Liz aren’t “new,” (Brett was our Associate Head Coach and Liz was an assistant rowing coach for the last two seasons), but that’s a technicality. At any rate, we’re excited to have them leading their respective programs, and are excited about the passion and enthusiasm they bring to their new positions. 
 
Our newest facility, the golf practice complex – which includes a driving range and chipping and putting areas on the Goodman Campus – is coming along and will no doubt be a terrific addition once fully functional in the near future.  You can follow the progress of the construction by visiting our photo gallery page or listen to Joe Sterrett’s update on the podcast.  See?  That’s another change – we’re trying to be even more interactive here on Lehighsports.com.
 
Speaking of interactive, did you participate in our Top 20 Games at Goodman survey earlier this month?  That’s going to be a pretty neat season-long celebration.  You can check out the official Top 20 and compare it to what you’d submitted by following Lehigh football all season long.  Each week on the game telecast and on our Lehigh Sports Magazine television show, we’ll unveil another moment. We’ll start on the September 3 season premiere episode of the LSM, and count down to your No. 1 choice – during the Lehigh-Lafayette telecast on November 17.
 
Lastly, before I go, I’d like to put my meteorology degree to use (insert laughter here).  After some mid-September style doom-and-gloom – that is, chilly, damp air – that we had for the last four or five days, the oppressive humidity made its triumphant return this morning.  Just in time for the return of students.  And just in time for the start of another year.  When the calendar hits late August, ourteams hit the field, trail, etc.  And we get excited at the start of another school year and another season of Intercollegiate Athletics atLehigh University.  At least, for me, that hasn’t changed.
 
As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback.  You may contact me via the link above.
 
Jeff

TO RETURN TO THE LEHIGH STUDENT-ATHLETE BLOGS HOME, CLICK HERE.