Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/14/21
From Press Release
Sophomore Katia Carnevale scored a career-high eight goals on just nine shots, and the Lehigh women’s lacrosse team allowed just three second-half goals, on its way to a 12-10 win at American on Saturday afternoon. Six of Carnevale’s goals were go-ahead goals while the other two were equalizers, in a game that saw neither team lead by more than two. Saturday marked Lehigh’s first Patriot League game since the 2019 season. The Mountain Hawks improve to 2-2 on the young season, 1-0 in league play.
Senior Cecily Redfern (Moravian Academy) and sophomore Emma Eberhardt each scored twice and dished an assist, while senior Hannah Cermack tallied three assists. Carnevale’s eight goals are tied for the second most in a game in Division I women’s lacrosse this season. She also had two groundballs and a career-high tying three caused turnovers. Graduate student Sondra Dickey (Conestoga) had three groundballs, three caused turnovers and five draw controls.
Lehigh jumped out to a 2-0 lead before American responded with the next two. A back-and-forth first half saw American go up 4-3 then after goals from Redfern and Carnevale to put the Mountain Hawks back in front, the Eagles ended the first half on a 3-0 run for a 7-5 halftime advantage.
The Mountain Hawks scored the first three second-half goals, all in the first three minutes, to go back in front 8-7. Carnevale went on to score five second-half goals, including one stretch of five straight Lehigh scores. Consecutive Carnevale goals turned a 9-8 Lehigh deficit into a 10-9 lead. After the Eagles pulled even at 10, Carnevale converted a free position shot with 11:27 on the clock for an 11-10 lead, which proved to be the difference.
American finished with a 29-19 edge in shots, 12-11 advantage in draw controls and 18-13 edge in groundballs. Senior Samantha Sagi made a season-high 10 saves across the Eagles’ Delaney Oliveira, who recorded three.
Northwestern 17, Penn State 13
No. 7/5 Penn State battled for 60 minutes against No. 3 and host Northwestern at Ryan Fieldhouse. The Nittany Lions matched the Wildcats, 8-8, in the second half. Penn State is now 2-2 on the season, while Northwestern improved to 5-0.
Madison Doucette (Unionville) had seven saves and three groundballs for Northwestern in goal.
Second-year freshman Kara Nealon (Garnet Valley) led the Nittany Lions with nine points, including two goals and a career-high seven assists. She was one assist away from tying Marsha Florio’s program record set in 1985 vs. Princeton. Nealon’s seven assists also tied the nation lead for most assists in a Division I game this season.
Sophomore Mary Muldoon registered a hat trick to set a career high with three goals. Freshmen Gretchen Gilmore and Kristin O’Neill each had two goals, while Maria Auth had a goal and an assist. Brooke Barger, Olivia Dirks (Episcopal Academy) and Regan Nealon (Garnet Valley) each tallied a goal while Rachel Rosen recorded an assist. Dirks also set a career high with 14 draw controls, helping Penn State to win the draw control battle, 20-11. Taylor Suplee made 12 saves, her 18th career double-digit save performance.
