BETHLEHEM, Pa.-? Lehigh University (10-5) used an 11-goal first half to defeat Monmouth University (6-9) Wednesday night by a final score of 14-9.
Despite outscoring the Mountain Hawks by a 7-3 margin in the second half, Monmouth dropped its ninth game of the season, mainly due to a first half in which Lehigh tallied 11 goals, compared to just two for the Hawks.
Lehigh scored the first four goals of the game in a span of seven and a half minutes before sophomore Rachel Feirstein (St. James, N.Y./Smithtown East) tallied an unassisted goal at the 22:22 mark.? Feirstein's goal didn't deter the Mountain Hawk offense, which then rattled off five more unanswered goals to take a 9-1 lead.? Junior Ali Pollock (Watervliet, N.Y./Shaker) found Caitlin Kelly (Mendham, N.J./West Morris Mendham), who scored MU's second goal, cutting the lead to 9-2 with 5:22 to play.? Lehigh's Sara McIntyre scored her fourth goal of the half with just over two minutes to play to push the lead to eight.? The home squad notched one more goal with 15 ticks left on the clock and took a commanding 11-2 lead into the break.
After midfielder Allison Thomas scored the first marker of the second half, Monmouth's offense came alive scoring the next four goals.? Unfortunately for Monmouth, it took 11 minutes off the clock and the Hawks still trailed 12-6.? During that span, MU got a pair of goals each from juniors Megan Brennan (King of Prussia, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) and Shawn Evans (Moorestown, N.J./Moorestown).? The next four minutes was a back-and-forth affair with each team scoring two goals over the span.? With 5:31 remaining Brennan took a feed from Perry DeWitt (Malvern, Pa./Great Valley) and beat Lehigh netminder Kaitlin Dean to cut the lead to 14-8.? Brennan scored once more with 15 seconds left to finish the scoring at 14-9.
Brennan led the Hawks with four goals, while Feirstein tallied two in the loss.? McIntyre and Lauren Dykstra each tallied four goals for Lehigh, with three other Mountain Hawks registering three points.
Monmouth's two goaltenders combined for 14 saves, with Monica Johnson (Radnor, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) making 13 of them.? The stat sheet heavily favored the home squad, with Lehigh holding a 32-22 advantage in shots and a 32-18 margin in ground balls.
The game was the final non-conference tilt for the Hawks in 2009.? MU will now face LIU on Friday and Quinnipiac at home on Sunday as the Hawks battle for a spot in the upcoming NEC Tournament.
