Lehigh travels to La Salle and Temple
Thursday at La Salle: Live Stats | Sunday at Temple: Watch Live | Live Stats
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Coming off an impressive 4-0 win at Binghamton Sunday, the Lehigh women's soccer team will round out its four-game road trip with games at La Salle Thursday (7 p.m.) and Temple Sunday (1 p.m.). The Mountain Hawks earned their second shutout in their first three games on Sunday, dominating the Bearcats behind a final shots advantage of 16-3.
Lehigh enjoyed a strong start on Sunday and took that momentum through most of the remainder of the game. The Mountain Hawks fired a shot on goal less than 30 seconds into the contest and took a 1-0 lead at the 1:50 mark behind sophomore Alyssa Riporti's first-career goal. Riporti also anchored the defense at center back, leading a unit which allowed just three shots all game. Senior Ani Nahapetian stopped all three shots sent her way for her ninth-career shutout, which helped her earn Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week honors, the third goalie of the week honor in her career.
Three of Lehigh's four goal-scorers tallied their first-career goals. Along with Riporti, freshman Amanda Marques and junior Kalin Ojert scored their first-ever goals while freshman Sabrina Mertz scored her third goal through three career games.
La Salle is 0-1-2 so far this season, tying Boston University and Seton Hall while falling to Maryland last time out. The Explorers have made three straight NCAA Tournaments, after going 14-6-2 in 2014, which included an appearance in the Atlantic 10 Championship Game. So far this year, La Salle has scored one goal and allowed two. Fia Jonsson has scored the goal while Kristin Haugstad leads the team with six shots. Katie Getzinger has started all three games in goal, owning a 0.58 goals against average and .818 save percentage.
The Explorers lead the all-time series against Lehigh, 8-6-1. The Mountain Hawks' last win came in 2010 (3-1) while La Salle has won the last three meetings: 1-0, 3-2 and 1-0.
Temple enters the weekend with a convincing 4-0 record (playing Rider Tuesday), beating Fairleigh Dickinson (3-0), Delaware State (5-0), Loyola (4-0) and Rider (2-1). The Owls, who play at Penn Friday, were 11-8-1 a season ago. Kelly Farrell leads the team with four goals and nine points while Elana Falcone has six points (two goals, two assists) and two others own four points (two goals) apiece. Eight players have already posted at least two points. In goal, Shauni Kerkhoff has started all four games and has stopped five-of-six shots sent her way in 309:49. Jordan Nash also has three saves in 50:11. Temple has 38 shots on goal this season, scoring on 14 of them, while the Owls have allowed just nine shots on goal (and one goal).
The all-time series between Lehigh and Temple is tied at 4-4-1 with the last meeting coming in 2005, a 2-0 Mountain Hawks' victory. The first meeting came in 1991, an 8-0 Temple victory. Lehigh's first win came during the 1999 season by a 2-1 final.
Following this weekend, the Mountain Hawks return home next Friday (Sept. 11) to host Monmouth at 7 p.m. Lehigh also hosts Saint Joseph's at 1 p.m.
Like Lehigh Women's Soccer on Facebook and follow on Twitter for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
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