PRINCETON, N.J. - The Lehigh women's soccer team played perennial Ivy League power Princeton neck-and-neck all game, but a Tigers goal with less than two minutes remaining proved to be the difference as the Mountain Hawks fell 2-1 on Wednesday evening. Junior Darby Wiegand scored Lehigh's goal while sophomore Ani Nahapetian made five saves in a strong effort between the pipes.
 
"As much as we're happy that we're continuing to improve and playing good soccer, there has to be a moment when we hate losing enough that we're going to make a change," said Lehigh head coach Eric Lambinus.
 
The Mountain Hawks were tied with Princeton for much of the game. Lehigh entered 0-15-1 against the Tigers all-time.
 
"We can't be satisfied with playing a good team even for 88 minutes. There has to be a moment when we believe and we do enough to win these games," said Lambinus. "When we do, we can be a really good team. We have to turn that corner and it has to come within each one of us."
 
The Tigers outshot the Mountain Hawks 10-3 in the first half, but Nahapetian was there to make four of her five stops while the defense came up with a big team save in the sixth minute off a corner kick.
 
Lehigh's first shot came at the 9:25 mark when junior Danielle Salans fired a shot wide. Less than a minute later, senior Heather Camperson had a shot that was stopped by Princeton goalie Darcy Hargadon.
 
After 13 combined shots which led to no first-half goals, the teams scored three on only six shots in the second.
 
Wiegand broke a scoreless tie at 53:41 off an impressive counterattack. Senior Paige Dyrek slid a pass to the center of the field where freshman Brinn McClennan corralled and fed Wiegand, who beat Hargadon to give Lehigh a 1-0 lead.
 
Princeton answered just over three minutes later as Jessica Haley put a header past Nahapetian. Then after more than 20 scoreless minutes, the Tigers' Tyler Lussi played a ball in the box and Melissa Downey corralled the loose ball for the game-winner at 88:18.
 
Final shots were 15-4 in favor of Princeton while corner kicks were 12-1 Tigers. Nahapetian's five saves came across Hargadon who made one.
 
Lehigh returns to Patriot League action on Saturday when it heads to Army for a big showdown against the Black Knights. Opening kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m.
 
"Our mindset has to be that it's a must-win game," said Lambinus. "We have to take all the things we're working on and turn it into a victory. I'm happy to say we've had two of our best weeks of training. We are going to prepare ourselves these next few days and come with the mindset that we'll win the game. If we have that mindset, then we'll give ourselves a good chance."
 
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