The Lehman College women's basketball team (2-0 Overall, 0-0 CUNYAC) made it two consecutive victory to open up their highly anticipated 2008-2009 season as they defeated the College of Mount Saint Vincent Dolphins (0-1 Overall, 0-0 Skyline) by a score of 75-60 Tuesday evening at the APEX Center in the Bronx.

The Lightning were led by senior center Whittney Barnes as the standout put together a career evening by dropping in 30 points while snatching 18 rebounds. The sensation made 10 of her 15 attempts from the floor and 10 of her 11 shots from the charity stripe on her way to a dominating night. Also chipping in for the Lightning with a solid evening was senior star Sally Nnamani as she scored 13 points to go along with four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Junior point guard Tonisha Kirby put forth her second consecutive solid effort in the victory as she scored seven points, dished eight assists, and snatched three rebounds. Following the victory, Head Coach Eric Harrison was very pleased with the start of his team's season.

“Now that we're going out on the road for five very tough games, it feels good knowing that we were able to take care of business in our own gym first,” Harrison said. “Tonight was a great team effort and I was very happy with the way we got after it tonight, especially defensively. This is only the start, and we're looking to tally some victories on this road trip. It should be interesting.

The Lightning owned the boards for the evening, as they out-rebounded the Dolphins 53-29. Lehman also shot 42.4 percent from the field for the contest while the College of Mount Saint Vincent converted on just 33.3 percent of their attempts.

In a losing effort for the Dolphins, freshman Brittany Griffin put together a solid performance as she scored a team-high 18 points to go along with two rebounds. Junior Karissa Koerner added 16 points and three rebounds, and junior Courtney Heeseman snatched six rebounds on the evening.

The Lightning will return to action this weekend as the team travels to Amherst to participate in the Amherst College Invitational. Lehman will battle St. Lawrence University Friday evening at 8:00pm, and depending on the result, the Lightning will take on either Amherst College or Pine Manor the day after at either 2pm or 4pm.