BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Following a long and productive summer away from campus, the Lehigh women's soccer began preseason over the weekend with fitness testing before hitting the field for day one of practice on Monday morning. The Mountain Hawks are focusing on implementing aspects of their vision created last spring.
 
"Today is really our first day of soccer, so we really wanted to stress competing with yourself to be the best you can be, and competing with your teammates," said Eric Lambinus, who is beginning his sixth season as Lehigh head coach. "The harder you compete, the harder it's going to be for your teammates so you're making everyone better. Iron sharpening iron."
 
Lambinus' goal is to focus on one aspect of the vision each day.

"We're planning our training sessions to make sure they can focus on an aspect of the vision each day to the very best of their abilities," he said. "So far, they're doing great. They're competing and getting after it. We did well yesterday. Going into our first scrimmage, we'll see how we're doing."
 
The Mountain Hawks will be put to the test quickly with a home scrimmage against preseason nationally-ranked Rutgers on Tuesday evening.
 
"Tomorrow will be a great game for us to come out against really good competition and see how we're doing," said senior Paige Elliott. "However that goes, we'll be able to push on from there knowing where we stand there. It's so exciting to be back and so surreal that it's my senior year. I think we have lots of great potential. We came out and performed really well on fitness tests and worked really hard yesterday."
 
A common denominator amongst the team through the spring, offseason and now preseason, has been chemistry. The Mountain Hawks hope the vision helps them through the process and reach their ultimate end goal, a Patriot League Championship. Lehigh has been extremely competitive over the past few seasons, which included a six-game unbeaten streak to begin Patriot League play last season and a tie against eventual league champ Boston University. The Mountain Hawks are looking to get over the hump and win their first championship since 2010.
 
"Last spring, we did a really good job bringing everyone together," said Elliott. "Even last fall, we were really improving the camaraderie, especially between seniors and freshmen, which is sometimes difficult. The group of girls got together at Lehigh this summer to get to know each other, which was important. I think only four people couldn't come, so considering we have people from places like Michigan, California and Tennessee, that was impressive. Honestly, I feel like I know all the freshmen pretty well and I'm a senior. The chemistry is something special and it'll be exciting to see where it takes us."
 
Monday's first day of practice followed a strong start to the preseason.
 
"Yesterday was our fitness testing, focused on self and team accountability, making sure we do everything to our very best, no matter what it is," said Lambinus. "Also, making sure that our teammates are doing the same. We talk about it every day; the better I am, the better the team is… Better Me, Better We."
 
The Mountain Hawks feature a strong core of returnees in 2015, led by sophomore and 2014 leading scorer Grace Correll. Elliott, a first team All-League honoree as a freshman, helps lead the defense, while senior Ani Nahapetian returns in goal after she posted a 0.69 goals against average and .860 save percentage as a junior. Lehigh welcomes eight freshmen to the roster as part of the class of 2019.
 
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