VILLANOVA, Pa.- Villanova defeated the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 7-3 to close out competition over Labor Day weekend. Momentum from the Wildcats' OT win over Indiana on Friday, Aug. 31 proved to still be swinging in the right direction, as it took them to another win. Villanova improves to 2-1 on the season and Lehigh drops to 0-3.

In the first half Lehigh came out to battle. Scoring the first goal, Lauren Dice netted one in on a penalty stroke in the first five minutes of play. Unfortunately for the Mountain Hawks, Villanova wasted no time to return the favor.

Megan Vermeil found the net for the 'Cats less than a minute later off a Lydia Sydnor pass, and tied things up 1-1.

The Mountain Hawks then grabbed their last lead of the game with 26 minutes left in the first half when Leah Mullery scored her second goal of the season.

For the next eight and a half minutes Lehigh hung on to the lead as Villanova battled to tied things up. The Wildcats shot the ball three times in that stretch before on the fourth Vermeil connected on a pass from Abby Siana to make the score 2-2. With ten minutes left of play in the first, Villanova's Emily Cliggett scored the final goal of the half from an Emily Clarke pass.

In the first half the 'Cats outshot the Hawks 12-5 but were behind in corners 3-1.

It did not take long for Villanova to pick things up where they left off in the first half. Siana found her way around defenders after a corner inserted by Christen Pennington to give Nova a 4-2 cushion. Minutes later Ana Sherwood glided through defenders, broke free and passed the ball off to Vermeil. She scored her third goal of both the game and the season sending her squad up 5-2.

Villanova would retain dominance for a majority of the second half. The Wildcats scored their third goal of the frame eight minutes into play. Lydia Sydnor scored her third goal of the season when she converted a Vermeil cross into the arc from the left side to make the score 6-2 VU.

The 'Cats held a comfortable lead over the Hawks and were able fill the field with some new faces. Rachel Overlander, Bella Brosie, Devyn Aschenbach, Mallary Sellars and Katie Capalbo all saw action in their first game of the year.

Capalbo entered the game with just under 17 minutes left to play and within five minutes she scored her first collegiate goal. Villanova went up 7-2 and would not score for the rest of the game.

The last goal of the game would come from Lehigh's Leah Mullery, cutting the lead to 7-3. Lehigh shot the ball three more times in the remaining six minutes of the game but did not convert. The same story was true for Villanova. The 'Cats shot the ball four times, one of the shot attempts coming from Overlander and two more from Bella Brosie.

In total, Villanova led the contest in shots 26-11, 16 of which were on goal for Nova and 8 for Lehigh. The Wildcats also led in corners seven to five with six coming in the second half. Lehigh's goalkeeper Paige Innarella recorded eight saves and Nova's Erika Miller recorded five.

The Wildcats will be back at home again Friday, Sept. 7 for a 4 p.m. game against the University of Pennsylvania. Villanova Field Hockey will have time to rejuvenate and prepare after a weekend's worth of competition to keep the season going strong.