Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/6/16
From Press Release
The Lehigh women’s lacrosse team didn’t trail by more than three goals for the game’s first 58:07, but Loyola scored the final three goals to pull away from the Mountain Hawks, 13-8 in the Patriot League Semifinals Friday. After falling behind 2-0, Lehigh pulled within one on six different occasions, but could never tie the score.
Junior Julianne D’Orazio (Merion Mercy) led the Mountain Hawks with a career-high four goals and five points while adding three draw controls and two caused turnovers. She finishes her season with 37 caused turnovers, tied for ninth in Patriot League history and just one from tying a school record.
For Loyola, Sabrina Tabasso (Harriton) had a goal and an assist along with five draw controls and two groundballs while defender Maddy Lesher (Archbishop Carroll) had three groundballs and two caused turnovers.
“We’re really proud of the effort this team showed today,” said Lehigh associate head coach Shannon McHugh. “We knew we had to play a near perfect game to beat Loyola. We’re proud of the way we played for 60 minutes.”
Junior Allison LaBeau added four points behind two goals and two assists. In the process, LaBeau reached 80 points on the season behind 46 goals and 34 assists. Junior Lauren Beausoleil had a goal and assist while senior Kendall Garden scored a goal to wrap up her storied career, which saw her earn three straight All-League honors and start all 67 career games.
Loyola came out with the game’s first two goals, taking a 2-0 lead with 26:27 on the first-half clock. D’Orazio responded at the 25:54 mark, converting a pass from LaBeau. The teams traded goals for the rest of the half as the Greyhounds went up by two before the Mountain Hawks continued to answer. D’Orazio scored as the first half expired, off a feed from freshman Courtney Henig, to pull Lehigh within 6-5 and give the Mountain Hawks major momentum heading into halftime.
Each team scored to start the second half before Loyola’s Frankie Kamely began to catch fire. She scored twice in less than a minute to give Loyola a 9-6 lead with 20:09 remaining. The Mountain Hawks answered with two of the next three goals, both scored by D’Orazio. Her career-high fourth goal of the game pulled Lehigh within 10-8 with 5:41 still remaining.
The Mountain Hawks won the ensuing draw and had chances to pull closer, but Kamely scored three more times in the span of 1:16 to erase any doubt.
Loyola finished the game with a 23-20 edge in shots, 11-6 advantage in groundballs and 12-10 edge in draw controls. Junior goalkeeper Taylor Tvedt made six saves across Loyola’s Molly Wolf, who finished with nine.
Lehigh ends its 2016 season with a 13-5 record, just one win from tying the school record after winning a school-record six Patriot League games in the regular season. The Mountain Hawks earned a big win at Boston University, hosted and won a league tournament game for the first time since 2010 while playing in the Patriot League Semifinals for the first time since 2011. Lehigh returns a strong group of players in 2017, led by D’Orazio, LaBeau and Beausoleil who all earned All-Patriot League honors in 2016.
“We’re really excited moving this program forward,” said McHugh. “We’re looking forward to progressing with what we showed this year. With the heart and hustle on the field, I think we’ll be an even stronger team next year.”
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