GREENSBURG, Pa. – The #14 Mercyhurst University men's lacrosse team saw its season come to an end Friday afternoon with a 7-6 loss to #6 Lake Erie College in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) semifinals. Mercyhurst finished the 2015 season with a record of 8-6. Lake Erie College, the tournament's defending champion, improved to 13-2 and will meet Lindenwood for the ECAC title Sunday at 12 noon. Lindenwood upset the host team, Seton Hill, 9-7 in the first semifinal contest of the day.

The Lakers, who bowed 9-7 at Lake Erie in mid-April, started strong by scoring three of the game's first four goals and led 3-2 after a quarter. Sophomore James Crowe scored his 29th goal of the season – his first of two on the day – just 40 seconds into the game. After the Storm's Mitchell Shaffer tied things less than a minute later, Crowe scored again, his 30th, with 11:10 to play in the period. Junior Connor Enright gave Mercyhurst a two-goal lead with his seventh of the year with 4:37 left in the first. But Lake Erie drew to within one when Mitch Redmond finished the scoring in the quarter with 2:35 left.

The Lakers regained their two-goal advantage as senior Trevor Vargo cashed his 26th marker of the season at 12:28 of the second. The Storm clamped down defensively after that and tied the semifinal game at 4-4 when Lucas Shaffer (4:19) and Connor Ryan (3:30) found the back of the next before intermission. The Lake Erie goals were the first two of what would-prove-to-be five unanswered goals by the Storm.

The Storm took its first lead of the game, one it would never relinquish, when Austin Bishop scored with exactly eight minutes to play in the third. And when Connor Ward scored late in the third (2:30) and Mitchell Stokes followed suit at 8:01 in the fourth, the Storm had moved to a three-goal lead at 7-4.

The Lakers, held off the scoreboard for 35:14, finally got one past the Storm's Tom Lipomi when sophomore Keyan McQueen nailed his 22nd of the year, a man-up goal, with 7:14 left. Sophomore Derek Richards made it a one-goal game when he registered his 10th of the season with just over five minutes to play. That score proved to be the Lakers last hurrah.

The Storm's seven goals came from seven different players.

Lipomi picked up the win in net, making seven saves. The graduate student allowed Mercyhurst only six goals in five quarters this season, having relieved to start the fourth quarter of April 15's contest with the score knotted at 7-7.

Mercyhurst graduate student goaltender, Michael Grace, the ECAC Goaltender of the Year, was credited with 13 stops.

The Lakers committed 21 turnovers in the contest, won 29 of 54 ground balls, and were 1 of 4 with the extra attacker.

Lake Erie outshot Mercyhurst 30-25.

The Lakers are now 7-2 lifetime against the Storm, but bowed in both games this season.