Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/30/23
From Press Release
The Lehigh women’s lacrosse team clinched a spot in the Patriot League semifinals for the third straight season after a dominating 20-8 win over Holy Cross Sunday afternoon at the Ulrich Sports Complex.
The Mountain Hawks put up 20 goals for the first time since beating American 21-6 on April 28, 2021.
Nine different Mountain Hawks recorded at least one point on Sunday. Lehigh’s starting attack unit all scored hat tricks. Olivia Memeger (Strath Haven) had five goals and one assist, Katia Carnevale had four goals and two assists, Emma Eberhardt had three goals and three assists, and Gabby Schneider had three goals.
Cassie Marte (Spring-Ford) scored four points and collected an amazing 12 draw controls along with a groundball and a caused turnover. Casey O’Connor (Springfield-Delco), who scored the opening goal for Lehigh, also had four points. O’Connor’s four points were a career-high for the sophomore. Emma Fiore (Gwynedd Mercy) had a goal and a groundball.
Lehigh’s offense got off to a hot start right from the jump. The Mountain Hawks scored the first two goals of the game. After the Crusaders got on the board with 10 minutes to play in the first quarter to pull within one, it would be the last one-goal deficit of the day.
Schneider gave Lehigh a five-goal lead with 5:15 to play in the first half, but Holy Cross would go on a 2-0 run. Lehigh led 9-5 at the half after Memeger scored with 19 seconds to play.
The Mountain Hawks came out of the second half soaring, scoring five unanswered goals, which put them up 13-5. Holy Cross scored two quick goals to cut the deficit to six, but Lehigh responded with another 3-0 run.
Lehigh was up by eight in the last meeting, and the Crusaders were able to pull within two, but Sunday would be a different story as the defense stood strong, and Lehigh’s offense was unstoppable.
Part of the reason Lehigh’s offense was so dominant was because of the draw controls. The Mountain Hawks had a 20-12 advantage. Marte tied a career high with 12 draw controls. Lehigh gaining offensive possession off of the draws allowed the Mountain Hawks to hold a 45-22 advantage in shots.
Even when a shot wouldn’t go into the goal, Lehigh was able to maintain possession. Lehigh also had 21 ground balls compared to 11 for Holy Cross.
The Crusaders had 14 turnovers on Sunday. Lauren Warfield, Mackenzie Porter and Julia DiConza each tallied two caused turnovers.
Hayley Hunt (Penn Charter) was credited with nine saves for Lehigh. Holy Cross’ Tori Cini had 14 saves.
Lauren Drillock and Ella Kittredge both had three points for Holy Cross.
The Mountain Hawks will face top seed Loyola in the Patriot League semifinals on Thursday at 3 p.m. in Baltimore. Thursday’s game will be
