LORETTO, Pa. (Sept. 16, 2009) – The Saint Francis field hockey team had plenty of chances, but couldn't put another two goals in net as they fell to the Mountain Hawks of Lehigh by a score of 3-1 on Wednesday afternoon at DeGol Field.

The Red Flash now fall to 0-6 on the season. They will travel to New York this weekend for games at Albany (September 18) and Colgate (September 20).

The first period proved to be a physical battle. The Mountain Hawks had six shots and the Red Flash seven, but neither team could find the back of the net.

Both teams' offenses got hot in the second half. SFU junior Rebecca Reiff (Farmingdale, N.J./Wall) (Wall, N.J./Wall) started the scoring off. Reiff took a pass from freshman Tia Dudukovich (Port Matilda, Pa./State College Area) (Port Matilda, Pa./State College Area) and shot it through traffic to put in her first goal of the season, giving the Red Flash a 1-0 lead two minutes into the second half.

Their lead wouldn't last for long, as Lehigh's Caitlin Donnelly netted the Mountain Hawks first goal of the game off a pass from Kimberly Eng less than thirty seconds later to tie the game at 1-1.

Eng, who factored into all three Lehigh goals, tallied one of her own ten minutes later on a 40-yard fast break from midfield. Her score put the Mountain Hawks ahead 2-1 with less than 25 minutes to play in the game.

Eng then took a corner from Lindsey Smith and sent it over to Morgan Christopher, who put the ball past Red Flash goalkeeper Sara Dittmann (State College, Pa./State College) to give Lehigh the 3-1 win.

SFU had plenty of chances to score on open nets, but just couldn't put one in. Both teams ended the game with 12 shots apiece. Reiff and fellow junior Caitlin Brown (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) led the team with three shots each.

Dittmann was strong in net and made several sprawling saves to keep the Red Flash in the game. She finished the day with seven stops, as did Lehigh goalkeeper Lilia Stefaniwsky.