South Mountaineer Volume 38, Issue 29

              DID YOU KNOW?
This weekend marks the second time
Lehigh has hosted the NCAA Women's
Lacrosse Championships. Next year's
tournament will also be held at Lehigh.
Final Spring Results/1996 Football Schedule
Page 13
Wrestling Recruits and Schedule Announced
Page 14
NCAA Women's Lacrosse/Camp Information
Page 15
South Mountaineer
Volume 9, Issue 29
Lehigh University Athletics Weekly
May 15,1996
NCAA loss ends LU softball season
Boston University sweeps Lehigh in NCAA Play-In by 7-0 and 1-0 scores
by James Taylor
Sports CommunicationsAssistant
Boston, Mass. - Adversity.
Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary defines it as "a calamitous or disastrous experience." A
synonym would be "misfortune."
Lehigh head softball coach Fran
Troyan talked a lot about overcoming adversity at the spring sports
banquet May 6 at Rauch Field
House.
"Come on," people in the audience must have thought.  "You're
coaching a team that just won its
fourth straight Patriot League
championship and you're singing
the blues? What about those of us
who have never experienced the
thrill of a league title?"
Then troyan went through a list
of difficulties this team had to fight
through to achieve what no other
Lehigh program had done in the
history of the league.
Graduated players, injuries, no
home games and inclement weather
all tried to conspire to derail the
dream of five seniors that wanted to
go a perfect 4-for-4 for their careers.
And when it was all said and
done, it took one extremely talented
Boston University pitcher to finally
end a Lehigh season that may have
just as easily ended two weeks
Kathy Kotula ended her career with four Patriot League titles.
Joe Ryan
Junior Amanda Wessner.
before at the league championships
in Allentown.
The difficulties started before
the season began.
Sure. Lehigh had
seven starters returning, including 1995
Patriot League Player
of the Year in senior
shortstop Kim Miller.
In fact, the entire
infield was full of
seniors, who had
started and played
the three previous
years at those positions.
But Lehigh had lost
the league's Pitcher of
the Year in Nina
Rems, its four-year
starting catcher
Karen Kascinski, and
all-league outfielder
Natalie Nestor all to
graduation.
Three big holes to
fill, but Lehigh filled
them.
Freshman catcher
Shannon Bracken
represented the
changing of the guard
at catcher by starting
,  40 out of 47 games
and even occasionally reminding
some fans of Kascinski with her
toughness behind the plate.
Sophomores Jill Lewis and
Patty Godwin combined to form an
effective one-two pitching combination that would have made Rems
proud. Lewis finished the season
with 20 complete games and a
school-record 17 wins while Godwin
hurled five shutouts, four of which
came against league opponents.
Junior Jen Viglietta, a converted infielder, and freshman
Kelly Lyons platooned at right field
to round out the best defensive
outfield in the league.
Then, just as Viglietta was
starting to get on track at the plate,
she tore the anterior cruciate
ligament in one of her knees while
rounding third base at Army and
was lost for the season.
Godwin stepped into right field
when she wasn't pitching to take
some pressure off Lyons.
When you've won the league
three straight years like Lehigh
had, you expect the other teams are
going to come after you. The
Mountain Hawks found out how
excited their opponents were to
play them in their very first league
game of the season against archrival Lafayette.
Lafayette beat Lehigh 3-2 in
eight innings, which was the first
time the seniors had lost to the
Leopards. But, Lehigh rebounded
to win game two, 9-2, and didn't
lose to another league opponent all
season.
Lehigh's 1996 team may also
be later referred to as The Road
Warriors. The Mountain Hawks
played just six games at home and
had three other doubleheaders
scheduled for Kaufman Field
rained out, but overcame the 41
road games by winning the close
ones. Lehigh was 14-7 in games
decided by two runs or less.
Inclement weather also prevented Lehigh from playing any
games between the league championship (April 28) and the NCAA
Play-In at Boston University (May
9), a span of 11 days.
However, the biggest blow was
saved for last when, with Lehigh
just six outs away from its fourth
championship, Miller went down
with the same injury Viglietta had
suffered earlier against Army.
Twice Miller, who holds league
and school career records in 11
offensive categories, tried to stand
up and stay in the game, but she
was finally carried off the field
when it became apparent she was
in too much pain to continue.
Miller's injury signaled the end of
the greatest softball career in
league and school history.
Perhaps Miller's injury was
the last straw in a season where so
much was expected of 18 players,
the one adverse condition this
scrappy bunch could not overcome.
Lehigh managed just seven
hits and no runs in 14 innings
against West as the Terriers shut
out the Mountain Hawks 1-0 and
7-0 to advance to the 32-team
NCAA Tournament. West was no
ordinary pitcher either. The senior
right-hander from California had a
0.52 ERA going into the game with
308 strikeouts in 190 innings.
An NCAA Tournament bid
would have been the icing on the
cake for this bunch. They accomplished their main objective with
the fourth championship and you
could hear parents and fans
pondering the possibility of a fifth
one as they left Allentown's Pates
Park April 28.
And on that sunny afternoon
this team reminded us of another
word that ends in "-ty."
That word is dynasty.