The AU women’s lacrosse team fought through adversity and a four-goal deficit to defeat the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 18-15 March 31 in the 2012 Lax Blowout.
“Well first things first, I’m glad that we came back after being down 7-3 in the beginning and we pulled out the win,” AU Head Coach Laura Campbell said. “I do think there’s a lot of things we need to work on moving forward for the final four games of the season.”
Lehigh (6-6, 2-2 PL) put the Eagles (7-5, 3-1 PL) on their heels early as Carli Sukonik, who scored a game-high seven goals, scored twice within the game’s first three minutes.
Lauren Schoenberger finally put the Eagles on the board at the 26:06 mark on the team’s first offensive possession.
“[We had to] just keep working; we had to get the ball,” senior Paige Lin said. “We hadn’t even gotten the ball by the time they scored three goals. So it was really important to take care of the ball when we got it.”
The Mountain Hawks traded goals with the Eagles after Schoenberger’s score, going up by as many as four (7-3) with 14:16 remaining in the first half.
But then the 12th best scoring offense in the country turned up the intensity.
The Eagles answered with a 6-1 run to turn a 7-3 deficit into a 9-8 lead at halftime.
The momentum then swung completely in AU’s favor, as Lin and Emily Burton contributed to four of the team’s nine second-half goals.
Burton, who leads the Patriot League in goals per game, ended the day with a team-high five scores. She also helped the Eagles win 20 draws compared to Lehigh’s 14.
“Burton is coming up big for us,” Campbell said. “We’re pleased with how she’s doing on the draw, and she just takes care of the ball and is very reliable with the ball. So we’re happy with her, but I think a lot of players stepped up too, it was good across the board with our team.”
Lehigh attempted to make a final push when Sukonik’s free-position goal cut the AU lead to three at 16-13 with nine minutes left.
The Eagles’ clock-managing offense then kept the Mountain Hawks’ fast transition attack away from the goal late to secure the 18-15 victory.
“It was a really important team win for us,” Lin said. “Coming back from the early deficit and ending up with a three-goal lead was really important. I think we played well as a team. We used the ride a lot to help us get the ball back, [and] everybody was working hard.”
With the win, AU takes sole possession of second place in the PL standings with two more conference games to go.
“We can only look one game at a time, but that’s one of our most important games of the season,” Lin said of the team’s upcoming April 7 home matchup with Lafayette. “Obviously if we win, we increase our chances of hosting the tournament, which is our goal; so every game is important, especially in the Patriot League.”
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