South Mountaineer Volume 32, Issue 14

              Volume 32, Number 14
January 10,1990
Bethlehem, Pa.
Mooney s 1,000th tops
Christmas break action
By GLENN HOFMANN
Sports Information Assistant
Not even a homestand-ending 79-62 loss to Central Connecticut State on
Sunday could overshadow what has otherwise been an outstanding first third of the
season for the women's basketball team.
The first two months have been filled with team and player milestones, a
somewhat surprising start, the emergence of Jocelyn Beck as a top-notch coach, and
maybe, most importantly, - no injuries.
At 8-4 Lehigh has the best record in the East Coast Conference and has established itself as one of the teams to beat as the Engineers get set to embark on their
final ECC season before moving to the Patriot League next year.
And while the team's start is the major story, this past weekend belonged to
Jeanne Mooney (Collingswood, N.J.). The senior forward became only the fourth
player in Lehigh women's history to reach the 1,000 point scoring plateau, doing so
in a 69-61 win over Yale.
Afterward, Mooney talked about the accomplishment and the pressure leading
up to it.
"Everybody was asking me about it and if I was nervous. To be honest it was
in the back of my mind the last couple of games, but once the game started 1 had no
idea of how close I was. I just wanted to get it at home."
The Stabler Center court is where Mooney scored number 1,000 and her driving
layup was an important one, because it seemed to ignite the Engineers, who had
been involved in a tough struggle with the visiting Eli.
After Mooney's big bucket, Lehigh went on a 13-4 run breaking open a close
game and increasing a two point lead to 11.
Yale did rally to within two points on three different occasions with less than
three minutes remaining, but Lehigh, as its done all season long, connected from the
foul line, eight of nine down the stretch, to pull out the win.
For the night Mooney ended up with 20 points, Sandy Hume (Whitehouse
See MOONEY page 2
Jeanne Mooney, here looking to pass, joined three other Lehigh players in the 1,000
point club, scoring her 1,000th in a 69-61 Lehigh win over Yale last Saturday. For the
day, she had 20 points. Lehigh is now 8-4.
Photography by YOUNG HONG
Engineers return from tough trip
Losses to Iowa, Iowa State follow Midlands**
By MIKE ALBRIGHT
South Mountaineer Editor
The Christmas break provided a mixed bag of
results for the Engineers as the team produced a
quality finish in the Midlands Wrestling Championships but then dropped two tough duals to perrenial
powers Iowa and Iowa State.
Perhaps larger than any dual meet defeat was the
loss of 167-pounder Solomon Fleckman (Cape Coral,
Fla), who dislocated his shoulder in the Midlands
tournament and is expected to be out for three to four
weeks.
His loss forces coaches Tom Hutchinson and Jim
Heffernan to juggle the lineup by moving freshman
Rob Patten (Burke, Va.) up to 167 and inserting Adam
Smith (Andover, Mass.) at 158.
With Fleckman out, the Engineers were unable to
send their best lineup on the mat during two dual meet
losses on their Midwest swing.
A 31-9 loss to the Cyclones on Jan. 3 was highlighted by several good Engineer performances while
there was not much to say about Lehigh's 47-3 loss to the
third-ranked Hawkeyes.
Iowa dominated the match, registering four technical
fall and three pins while winning nine of the 10 bouts,
including a forfeit at 158.
Junior Matt Ruppel (Deer Lodge, Mont.) captured
Lehigh's lone victory when he manhandled Iowa's
Brooks Simpson 6-1. Ruppel, ranked second at 190,
racked up 2:37 of riding time in his defeat over Simpson,
ranked fourth.
Heffernan said the team came out flat against Iowa
and that it hurt the Engineers's chances for a good
showing. He also expressed concern that the team
rebound from the one-sided defeat and get on with the
season.
"We need several good days of practice," Heffernan
said. "With finals and Christmas break, we didn't have a
lot of time in the room and we are not in the greatest
shape."
But Heffernan said he hoped the team could get
in shape both physically and mentally.
"You're always a little worried coming off a loss
like that (Iowa), but hopefully we can rebound,' he
said. "You tell them to forget about it but their minds
and bodies have been through something that doesn't
happen to Lehigh wrestlers very often."
Despite the Iowa match, there were some
highlights from the 10-day trip, the longest in recent
history for the Engineers. The Engineers finished 13th
at midlands (top ranked Arizona State won the team
title) and had three wrestlers among the top six at their
respective weight classes.
Ruppel, 19-2-1 on the year, finished fourth at
Midlands and with a break, could have finished third.
He defeated former Penn State wrestler Dan
Mayo 5-4 in the quarterfinals, running his record to
17-0 at that point. In the semi's, Ruppel was pinned by
See WRESTLING page 3