South Mountaineer Volume 35, Issue 22

              Volume 35, Number 22
April 6, 1993
Bethlehem, Pa.
LEHIGHLIGHTS
ROOKIE SENSATION - Freshman first
baseman Jessica Feigley (Allentown, Pa.)
of the Engineer softball team was named
Patriot League Player of the Week for the
week ending 3/29. The award actually took
the first two weeks of the season into
account, as it was the first time this year the
league has given out the award. Feigley
started all 11 games for the Engineers on
their spring break trip to Florida. She hit
.412 to lead the team and banged out three
doubles and three triples. In the field, Feigley
had 97 putouts and 10 assists while
commiting just one error for a .991 fielding
percentage. Feigley also came through with
two-game winning hits as the Engineers
won five games down south. The hot hitting
continued for Feigley as she went 4-4 in
leading the Engineers to a doubleheader
sweep of Muhlenberg last Wednesday.
A "BIG LEAGUE" WEEKEND— The
Lehigh Engineers hosted six of the seven
opposing Patriot League teams this
weekend, with Colgate being the one school
Lehigh didn't come up against in one sport
or another. The men's tennis team hosted
Fordham on Saturday and Holy Cross on
Sunday while the baseball team hosted
Navy on-Sauirday and Bucknell on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the men's lacrosse team hosted
Lafayette on Saturday and the softball team
entertained Army on Sunday.
REPASKY MAKES HISTORY— Junior
Gretchen Repasky (Lansdale, Pa.) of the
Engineer women's track team recently did
something that no other Lehigh women's
runner has ever done. Repasky qualified
I'or the ECAC Championships during the
outdoor track season. She did it at the
Wake Forest Relays (3/20) during the
Engineers' spring break trip to Winston-
Salem. North Carolina. Repasky qualified
with a 17:23.5 lime in the 5.000-meter run.
setting a new Lehigh record. Just for good
measure. Repasky set a second Engineer
record wilh a 10:10.5 showing in the 3.000-
meter run.
INSIDE the Mountaineer
Gillis puts up big numbers .... 2
Potts bursts onto the scene .. 2
Multi-dimensional Mary 3
Spring sports roundup 3
Spring sports slate 4
PLAYING LIKE CHAMPS
The   success of the 1993 men's lax squad
conjures up memories of the early Engineer
squads which captured national championships.
A look at the championship years:
YEAR                             RECORD
1890                                    4-1-1
1893
1914*
1916*                                   6-1
1917*                                   4-0
1920"                                    5-1
1921                                     8-1
|! Shared title with another school
Men's laxers taking it to the ultimate 'goal'
Lehigh off to it's best start in 24 years prior to Lafayette game
By MARC GESUALDO
South Mountaineer Editor
Okay, class, it's trivia time.
When was the last time the Lehigh
men's lacrosse team started the season
with the stellar 5-1 mark it's sporting
nowadays?
Stumped? Well, dig back about 24
years in the old memory bank.
You actually have to go back to May
Of 1969 to find the last Engineer squad
which reached the high-water mark that
the 1993 team has in its first six games.
As a matter of fact, the current Engineers
have won nine of 10 dating back to last
year.
"Over the years we've had two or
three individuals who were dominating-
type players and the quality has dropped
off somewhat from there," said head
coach John McCloskey. "This year we
have pretty good quality from top to
bottom and I think this may be the best
31-deep roster we've had."
Certainly the first month of the
season has served notice that the
Engineers aren't a team with just a few
talented players. Junior attack Jeff
Jenkins (18 goals) leads the team in
scoring but he's had plenty of help.
Sophomore attack Matt Sweetman
has chipped in with 12 goals and 14
assists while junior midfielder Chuck
Romeu ranks third with 9 goals and 2
assists.
"I think everyone realized that there
were really no top guns this year and the
question was how to score goals,"
McCloskey said. "We've just gone with
a team philosophy of moving the ball
around and whoever has the best chance
LEHIGH
tU3ta&
Jeff Jenkins leads Lehigh in scoring.
gets the shot. Thus far, it's paid off."
Another strategy in
McCloskey's masterplan which has
paid huge dividends is Lehigh's top-
notch fall ball program. The
Engineers were able to work on their
zone defense and experiment with
one of their new offenses in the fall.
Oh yeah, they also ran into some
pretty tough customers.
"We worked on things all
through fall ball in a real intense
practice mode rather than trying to
cram everything we wanted to do
into the month of February,"
McCloskey said. "Going to Rutgers
and facing the likes of Towson State
and Syracuse and holding our own
gave us confidence for games against
strong teams like Radford and VMI."
And the Engineers have carried
that confidence right into the win
column. Lehigh has already beaten
three teams this season (Radford,
VMI, and Stony Brook) which they
lost to during the 1992 campaign.
"We've gotten more in the areas
where we've needed it and we've tried to
emphasize playing the best lacrosse possible,"
McCloskey said. "To be among the best, you
have to win day in and day out and we're
waiting to see if that will happen."
There's a good chance that will happen
if the Engineers continue a few of their recent
trends. Lehigh has averaged nearly 13 goals
per game and has outscored the opposition by
a 44-25 count in the second half. Even more
impressively, the Engineers hold a 26-10
fourth-quarter edge over their rivals.
"We run three midfields which very few
teams do, so we're getting three fresh middie
units in the second half when
other teams have two tired units
and I think the game is won and
lost at midfield," McCloskey
said. "We also had a good offseason running program and
worked real hard on
conditioning."
Time out for another trivia
question. Of Lehigh's top six
scorers, how many are seniors?
Answer...none.
Following the Jenkins-
Sweetman-Romeu in the
scoring department is
sophomore attack Adam Stoler
with seven goals and three
assists. Sophomore midfielder
Nick Serniuck has added six
goals and three assists while
freshman attack Vince Geppi is
responsible for 10 goals.
"We're certainly getting a
lot out of our underclassmen
and even some of the younger
guys who don't play as much
are making practice a lot more
competitive," McCloskey said.
Matt Sweetman: big sophomore year. -Photo by Keith Rapapport
"Now I'm hoping the seniors can step it up a
level as well."
On the defensive front, freshman goalie
Chris Parandian has stepped in for the injured
Dave Siegelaub and made people forget he's
in his first year at the collegiate level.
Parandian has accumulated 66 saves,
including a 22-save effort in Lehigh's 15-11
win over Air Force.
"Chris has handled everything fine and
you never see him too high or too low,"
McCloskey said. "He knows that no matter
who you play in this sport, you're going to
pick the ball out of the net a few times. His
personality is good for the position he's in."
The interesting story here is that
Siegelaub is getting set to return, and he and
Parandian are fraternity brothers. But
McCloskey sees that more as a blessing than
a potential goalie contoversy.
"There's a healthy rivalry there and
having Dave back will be a big help,"
McCloskey said. "For the past couple of
weeks, Geoff (assistant coach Hebert) and I
have been flipping a coin for who would put
on the gear as the second goalie in practice."
And while the Engineers have been
focusing on scoring goals all year long,
they're starting to concentrate on setting a
few goals for themselves as well.
"Winninga Patriot League championship
would be the ultimate accompilshment. If we
can put ourselves into position to play Army
in a one-game showdown, that will be a
golden opportunity," McCloskey said. "The
question we have is whether or not we can
maintain the consistency we've had. The
jury's still out on that."
And when that sentence is finally passed,
the Engineers are hoping for one verdict and
one verdict only - a Patriot League
championship.