HAMILTON – Lehigh scored three unanswered goals to defeat the Colgate field hockey team 3-1 on Saturday afternoon at Tyler's Field.
Ella Murphy opened the scoring with her third goal of the season in the second quarter. Claire van Kempen registered five saves in the contest despite shouldering the loss.
"Our defense played really sound today," said head coach April Cornell-DeAngelis. "I'm happy that we were steady back there against a dynamic team like Lehigh. They move the ball quickly, so our defense did a nice job trying to sustain them.
"Unfortunately they were able to get on the board a few times but for us we recognize that we have to sustain our attack and draw more corners. We had success on our corner in the first half, so we have to recognize that has to be more of a key for us moving forward."
Lehigh controlled more offensive pace in the opening frame, with four shots to Colgate's one, but the Raiders manufactured the better scoring chance as Murphy forced an early save off a penalty corner from Grace Schmelzinger just 20 seconds into the match.
Colgate's hard work paid off in the second quarter. Lauren Widdowson inserted a penalty corner to Alice Walton at the top of the circle. Walton slid a pass across to Murphy who blasted a low shot through traffic to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead midway through the second term.
van Kempen made two saves in the first half, and they both came less than a minute apart to keep the Raiders in front 1-0 at halftime.
Lehigh snatched the momentum early in the third quarter. Julia Gatelein tied the match four minutes into the second half before Lotte Smorenburg gave the visitors their first lead of the day off a penalty corner with 5:20 left in the stanza.
The Raiders were issued a penalty corner in the waning seconds of the quarter but Schmelzinger's low shot sailed wide and the visitors maintained their 2-1 lead.
Colgate generated more chances late in the contest but the Mountain Hawks tacked on an insurance goal down the stretch to seal the 3-1 final score.
UP NEXT
Colgate (3-6, 0-2 PL) is back in non-conference action Tuesday, visiting Cornell at 4 p.m.
