Box Score BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Junior attackman Jamie Breslin (Mountain Lakes/Mountain Lakes, N.J.) recorded a career-high eight points to lead the 12th-ranked Hobart College lacrosse team to an 18-11 victory over host-Lehigh University. The win clinched at least a share of the Patriot League Championship and guaranteed the Statesmen the League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Hobart (7-4, 5-1 Patriot) got off to a fast start scoring the first four goals of the contest. Senior attackman Jared Bebee (West Genesee/Syracuse, N.Y.) opened the scoring, finishing a feed from Breslin just 28 seconds in. Twenty-two seconds later, senior midfielder Spencer Niebuhr (Stony Brook/Smithtown, N.Y.) gave the Statesmen a 2-0 lead. Breslin netted back-to-back tallies, on assists by Bebee and sophomore attackman Dave Spratlen (Colorado Academy/Littleton, Colo.), respectively, to complete the run. The Mountain Hawks (7-5, 2-3) cracked the scoring column with their only goal of the opening frame at the 3:54 mark. Breslin, the Patriot League's Offensive Player of the Week, scored another goal off a Bebee feed just 11 seconds later to close out the first quarter scoring.
Hobart goals off the sticks of Breslin, Spratlen, and junior midfielder Joe Leska (Vestal/Vestal, N.Y.) gave the Statesmen an 8-1 lead with nearly 13 minutes remaining in the first half. Lehigh, the 1999 Patriot League Champion, proved it still had some bite by rattling off the next four goals to make it an 8-5 game.
Breslin registered his fifth goal of the game at the 3:53 to halt the Hawks run. First-year Tim Booth (Waterloo/Waterloo, N.Y.) and Niebuhr added goals in the final minute of the first half to send Hobart to the locker room with an 11-5 lead.
Lehigh scored the first goal of the second half to cut its deficit to five goals, the closest the Mountain Hawks would get in an otherwise anticlimactic second half.
Breslin, who finished with a career-high matching six goals and two assists, accounted for what passed for second half excitement. With his Statesmen leading 14-8, he took a feed from sophomore Christian Gould (Waldorf/Freeport, N.Y.) and beat the Lehigh goalie for his 100th career point. His career totals stand at 66 goals and 34 assists.
Bebee, who scored his 100th career point earlier this season against Bucknell, has now scored at least a point in 38 consecutive games, dating back to April 30, 1997. He finished with two goals and five assists.
Senior James Murtha (Manhasset/Manhasset, N.Y.), the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week, made eight saves, while Todd Schreiner made 12 stops for Lehigh.
The Statesmen become the third team to qualify for the 2000 Tournament, joining Ivy League Champ Princeton and ECAC Champ Georgetown. Hobart will make its second appearance in the last three years in the NCAA Tournament and its 23rd appearance overall. The Statesmen earned six postseason berths at the Division II level, before the creation of Division III. Hobart won the first 12, and, 13 of a possible 15 Division III titles, before elevating its program to Division I in 1995.
The Statesmen will host the North First Round Doubleheader on May 13 at Boswell Field. For ticket information call (315) 781-3075 or visit the official postseason web site of the Hobart Statesmen at:
www.hws.edu/act/ath-hob/lacrosse/ncaa.html
Hobart returns to action on Sat., April 29, when it travels to Loyal College to take on the third-ranked Greyhounds at noon.
--HWS SPORTS--
