BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh scored four of the final five goals to come from behind to down Mount St. Mary's 10-9 in the women's lacrosse season opener for both teams on Saturday.

Katelyn Catanse (Huntington, N.Y./St. Anthony's) picked up where she left off last season, leading the Mount (0-1) with four goals. Rebecca Douglass (White Hall, Md./Towson Catholic) dished out three assists and Breana Waraksa (Media, Pa./Strath Haven) recorded two assists and a goal in the loss.

Lauren Dykstra paced the Mountain Hawks (1-0) with three tallies and an assist. Inneke Carmola and Christy Smith each tallied two goals and a helper in the winning effort.

Lehigh recorded four unanswered goals in a span of 93 seconds to erase a two-goal deficit and hold on in the first meeting between the two programs since 2005.

After the Mount grabbed an 8-6 advantage on Catanese's fourth marker and Douglass' second assist at the 38:32 mark, the Mountain Hawks recorded four-straight scores to take a 10-8 lead.

Carmola started the run with her first goal of the year off a Meagan Tenety assist at the 40:30 mark. Carmola found the back of the net again 48 seconds later off a Jen Ingalls helper to tie the game at 8.

Dykstra then handed Lehigh the lead for good on an unassisted tally at 41:38 before Smith added the crucial insurance goal on a free-position shot at 42:03 for a 10-8 lead.

Douglass helped the Mountaineers closed the gap to 10-9 when she connected with Mary Kate Lavin (Ellicott City, Md./Maryvale) for her first collegiate goal at 45:29.

The Mountain Hawks opened the game to score four of the first five markers to take a 4-1 margin with 23:16 remaining in the first half.

Allison Thomas scored 26 seconds into the match before Catanese answered at 1:48 to knot the game at 1. Dykstra gave the Lehigh the lead off a Carmola helper at the 3:22 mark. Sara MacIntyre found the back of the net off a Tenety helper at 4:32 before Dykstra ended the surge of a Smith assist at 6:44 for a 4-1 advantage.

Catanese stopped the run with her second score of the afternoon off a Kathleen Rossetti (Perry Hall, Md./Perry Hall) helper at 9:51. MacInytre answered right back when Smith scored off a Dykstra assist at 10:48 to maintain a three-goal advantage.

The two teams traded goals again when Waraksa took a feed from Douglass at 12:47 before MacIntyre converted an 8-meter shot at 14:53.

Mount St. Mary's then ended the half scoring four-straight goals to go into the intermission with a 7-6 edge. Waraksa helped start the spurt by setting up freshman Lucy Pompa's (Baltimore, Md./Bryn Mawr) first collegiate score at 16:05. Ashley Johnson (Arvada, Colo./Arvada West) scored on a free-position shot at 16:56 before Catanese found the twine for the third time off a Waraksa assist with 1:35 left in the stanza. Freshman Kelly Taylor (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) handed the Mount its first advantage of the afternoon when she converted an 8-meter shot with 47 seconds remaining at 7-6.

Catanese increased the Mountaineers advantage to 8-6 with her fourth tally to start the scoring in the second half before the Mountain Hawks went on their decisive 4-0 run to earn the victory.

Mount St. Mary's had a couple of chances to tie the game, but could not convert. Rossetti had her shot saved by Kelsy Ferris with 7:48 remaining before Johnson had the tying score taken away after being called for a crease violation in the closing seconds of the match.

Jane Karger (Pittsburgh, Pa./Hampton) recorded 10 saves while Ferris recorded seven saves for Lehigh.

The Mount returns to action on Saturday at Towson. Game time is 1:00 p.m.

2008-02-16