After already toppling Lady Spiders at Richmond and the Tribe of William & Mary, the Lady Lion lacrosse team now looks to dismantle a group of Engineers.
The game was supposed to be played yesterday, but was postponed until 3 p.m. today at Lehigh because of wet field conditions. Coach Julie Williams' squad (2-3 overall, 1-1 on the road) will once again look to keep the turnovers down against the Engineers (3-1 overall, 1-0 in the Patriot League).
Williams said her team has been working on its short-passing game in an effort to keep the giveaways down. The Lady Lions have already given the ball up 102 times, an average of 20.4 turnovers per contest. But it won't be easy against Lehigh.
"They're fast and they can go both hands," Williams said of the Engineers, adding that they were hurt somewhat by graduation. "They lost a lot on defense."
But what Coach Jackie Keeley lost on defense she kept on offense, returning two of her top guns from a year ago.
Junior captain Elizabeth Brode, a regional All-American last year, has 14 goals and 10 assists this year. Junior attacker Kristin Gillis is second on the team in goals with 10, and tied for second in assists with four.
The Lady Lions will look to win their second consecutive game after a tough overtime loss to Virginia on Saturday. In the loss, Penn State came back in the game's final 10 minutes with five unanswered goals, knotting the score at 9-9. But the joy of the comeback was quickly tempered as Virginia outscored Penn State in the extra session, 2-1.
But while some players might find it discouraging to come all the way back only to lose, Lady Lion Michele DeJuliis isn't one of them.
"Our intensity was so high and it felt like this was our game," the freshman said, adding that the team will undoubtedly learn from the experience. "We get so psyched -- we're so ready to go and play harder."



