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This Weekend in Lehigh Sports 2/16/2007

Sure, there's two huge dual meet this weekend versus ranked opponents for Lehigh's wrestling team. Sure, the men's basketball team has an always-huge game against Lafayette in Easton on Sunday. But no game in the Lehigh Valley is more important than the women's basketball team this Saturday at Kirby Sports complex.

Why is that? The Lady Hawks (9-16, 4-7) have a unique opportunity - to enter the postseason Patriot League tournament at Navy either as cannon fodder for Bucknell or a chance to wear the home jerseys for a game and put themselves with an opportunity to sweep their way into the NCAA tournament. With four teams at 4-7 (including 6-20 Lafayette) and two more at 5-6 (including next weekend's opponent Holy Cross), if Lehigh can find a way to win these three games this week, you have to like their chances in the tournament to possibly make a run. Beat hated rival Lafayette this weekend, beat league leader Bucknell at home on Wednesday, and finish off Holy Cross next Saturday, and all of a sudden, it's a brand new season. Lose all three games, and it's time for toast.

It will require complete efforts like we saw Tuesday against Colgate, where the Lady Hawks demolished the Lady Raiders 68-50. With six players with 8 points or more and 20 rebounds from the starting five, if Lehigh can keep this momentum up and play tough, we could still be in this thing. But the most important game is tomorrow night against a Lafayette team who will be eager to close out their regular season with some momentum as well. With so little separating six teams, every win is crucial.

Tonight, we're going to see the men's wrestling team continue their torrid pace with a couple of big duals versus nationally-ranked Nebraska (#19) on Friday and Penn (#20) on Sunday. The #24-ranked Mountain Hawks, and their three nationally-ranked wrestlers, will be looking to close out the duals season on a high note before the EIWA championships March 2nd and the NCAA Championships March 15th.

Finally, although the men's basketball team will be looking to close out their league slate with another win over their hated rival Lafayette on Sunday, the Mountain Hawks will be looking more to see how well C Jason Mgebroff can get back into the gameplan before the two "twin terrors" of Bucknell and Holy Cross to end the league schedule. Barring a complete collapse, Lehigh will be the #3 seed going into the playoffs and will host a first round game, but if there's any realistic hope to make a run against mighty Bucknell and Holy Cross, I'll be looking for a strong finish in the league. I'm hoping with Mgebroff back, we have a shot. We'll see on Sunday.

As always, you can follow the action on lehighsports.com.
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Anonymous said…
Yikes! Not a great year for Lehigh sports. Coming up short against Lafayette again and again. Even the wrestling program is having a tough year.
9:03 AM
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