WHEELING, W. Va. - The Mercyhurst University women's volleyball team saw its 2014 season come to an end on Thursday afternoon with a hard-fought three games to one loss against California University of Pennsylvania in an NCAA Atlantic Region Quarterfinal match hosted by Wheeling Jesuit University. The Lakers concluded the year with an 18-13 overall record while the Vulcans moved on and improved to 29-8 on the season. California took the match 19-25, 25-14, 25-14, 25-20.

Mercyhurst, seeded sixth in the region, took the opening game by a 25-19 final thanks, in part, to a mini 4-0 run to break open an 11-10 advantage. During the run, junior Lexi Stefanov had a kill to extend the Laker lead to 12-10, which was then followed by three successive Vulcan hitting errors, which included two blocks by Stefanov, to bump the Mercyhurst advantage to five points. California cut the Laker lead to 17-15 later in the match before Mercyhurst again went on a 4-0 run to go ahead by six. Two blocks by senior Rachel Crittle, one by junior Kelly Vitt, and a kill by senior Camille Alvarez provided the points for the Lakers in the run.

California won the next two games by identical 25-14 scores to take a 2-1 lead in the contest.

The Lakers fought hard in game four, battling back from a 14-7 deficit to tie the game at 17-17. During the 10-3 spurt, after a kill by Crittle, sophomore Sarah Wegrzyn provided back-to-back service aces to cut the lead to 14-10 and to force the Vulcans to take a timeout. After the timeout, California rattled off back-to-back points to extend its lead to six before the Lakers scored four straight points, on a pair of kills by Alvarez and one from Stefanov, to pull within two. After a hitting error by Wegrzyn put the Vulcans ahead 17-14, Mercyhurst scored the next three points on a hitting error, a kill by sophomore Lauren Kenny, and a block by Alvarez and Stefanov.

California's Laurel Miller recpatured a one-point lead at 18-17 with a kill and then a hitting error by Kenny put the third-seeded Vulcans ahead by two - a lead they would never relinquish.

Wegrzyn led the Lakers with 10.5 points after posting eight kills, two aces, eight digs, and a block assist. Stefanov chipped in with ten points, also recording eight kills in the match. Alvarez and Crittle had nine points apiece in a losing effort.

Miller led the Vulcans with 22 points, posting 16 kills and ten digs in the match.