The Eripret household has ties with the Lehigh University women's basketball team, and now Meagan Eripret will continue that tradition.

Meagan's mother, Bridget, was an assistant coach at Lehigh for a number of years. Now, Meagan has chosen to follow her mother's footsteps in a way by verbally committing to play basketball for the Mountain Hawks after graduating from Salisbury High Scool.

"Lehigh has always felt like the right kind of fit for me," Meagan Eripret said. "I've been around it since I was little. My mom used to be the assistant coach there like 13 years ago or something. I went to camps and games all the time. I think it was just something that I grew up with, and it felt like I kind of belonged there."

Eripret, who recently completed her junior season, made the decision to join Lehigh in late February, a few days before the Falcons' District 11 Class AA semifinals win over Pine Grove. She then put together a performance against Pine Grove (25 point and 18 rebounds) that showed why she is one of the top prospects in the area.

"Earlier in the year, she [head coach Sue Troyan] told me that when I felt ready and comfortable that I should let them know," Eripret said. "It took me awhile. I thought about it for a week or two, and then I realized that's where I wanted to be."

The Mountain Hawks went 13-18 (5-13 in Patriot League) in Troyan's 19th season as head coach. During her time at Lehigh, she has coached the Mountain Hawks to three Patriot League championships.

A number of other Patriot League schools had interest in the Eripret, including Boston, American and Colgate universities. But the deciding factor for Eripret was the camaraderie the Golden Hawks women's team has shown whenever she has seen them.

"What I liked a lot was the fact that the players really enjoyed being around each other, and they all really got along," Eripret said. "They were all really nice, and they all seemed really close. I think that was important because I didn't want to be part of a team that was just a team and they weren't friends with each other."

Along with a number of visits to Lehigh, Eripret went on trips to check out both Boston and Holy Cross. It came down to Lehigh and Boston, and while she admits it wasn't clear-cut right away, spending her college years as a Mountain Hawk was the right choice.

"For a while, I was kind of flipping back and forth because I really love the Boston area," Eripret said. "But I think once I sat down and actually thought about it, I realized that there was no competition with it. It was where I wanted to be."

Eripret isn't sure just yet what she plans on majoring in, however, she has enjoyed her visit to the academics side of the campus.

"Everyone who has said anything to me has said it's a really good school and you get a really good education from it," Eripret said. "I'm really excited for that because I know it's a really good school."