BETHLEHEM, Pa. - After a tough first half, the Lehigh women's soccer team outshot Princeton 9-6 in the second half on its way to a 4-1 nonleague defeat on Wednesday evening. The Tigers scored three goals in the span of 16:55 in the first half, but freshman Adrian Vitello's first-career goal highlighted a much stronger second half for the Mountain Hawks. Lehigh will look to take that momentum into a Saturday night showdown at Loyola.
 
"I thought the second half was really well played," said Lehigh head coach Eric Lambinus. "Even in the beginning of the game and spurts in the first half, we did a lot of things we wanted to do. But we weren't as aggressive as we normally are during a 15-20 minute stretch when they scored the three goals; we sat back way too much. We let them dictate the game. When you let that happen, a good team like that's going to put a few balls in."
 
Lehigh generated the game's first corner kick, but Princeton scored the first two goals, both coming within a 1:13 span. On the first goal, Jesse McDonough made a feed into the box. Senior goalie Ashley Blanks came out strong and got a piece, but the ball deflected right to Lauren Lazo, who found the open net to make it 1-0 at the 6:20 mark.
 
Just over one minute later, Tyler Lussi attempted a shot from just outside the box which was blocked. The rebound bounced to Vanessa Gregoire, who slid the ball back to Lussi. The Princeton sophomore followed with a strike into the upper-right corner of the goal to make it 2-0 at 7:33.
 
Lehigh responded with some scoring chances as junior Madi Morgan fired a shot on goal in the 17th minute. However, Princeton took a 3-0 advantage in the 24th minute .From the right side, Lazo made a centering feed to Lussi, who headed the ball past Blanks at 23:15.
 
The Mountain Hawks came out of halftime with renewed energy, generating the first corner kick and shot on goal of the second half. The increased pressure led to a goal at the 56:45 mark as senior Darby Dustman found Vitello in the box. The freshman adjusted into good position and perfectly placed a strike into the upper-right corner of the net for her first-career goal, pulling Lehigh within 3-1.
 
Blanks made two saves over the next 14 minutes to keep Lehigh within two, but the senior netminder couldn't stop a Mikaela Symanovich shot in the 71st minute that hit the crossbar and bounced in to make the score 4-1, which proved to be the final.
 
Final shots were 17-14 in favor of Princeton while the Mountain Hawks held a 5-3 edge in corner kicks. Blanks made seven saves across a pair of Princeton goalkeepers who tallied three each.
 
"We have to take some time to review what went wrong. I think we have an idea, but we have to show the team," said Lambinus. "I think they're ready to see it. We're going to show the things that we did well, too. We'll have to dictate the game against Loyola; we need to take the game to them. It's important to do that and I think we'll be up for the challenge."
 
Lehigh will return to action at Loyola on Saturday before returning home the following Saturday (Oct. 18) to host Army on Senior Night.
 
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