ERIE, Pa. – The Mercyhurst men's water polo team defeated Connecticut 13-7 before falling 13-12 to Salem at the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Western Region Championships on Saturday.
 
The win over Connecticut sent the Lakers to game six against second ranked Salem. With the loss to Salem, Mercyhurst will play in the third place game on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. against Gannon.
 
Mercyhurst 13, Connecticut 7
Alex Cappuccio (3g, 1a) and Spencer Saban (1g, 3a) led the way for Mercyhurst with three goals and one assist. Daniel Alvarez and Philip Jenny had two goals each while single goals were credited to Shaquille Mitchell, Matt Bachler, Noah Ratliff, Otis Tyson and Andrew Howe. Ratliff also had an assist.
 
Alec Diaz tallied three assists while single assists were earned by Jackson Rehmet and Brennan Russell.
 
In net, Nash Greeven made nine saves for Mercyhurst (13-10, 4-2).
 
Salem 13, Mercyhurst 12
Jenny recorded three goals and three assists while Mitchell and Cappuccio also had three goals each. Connor Schmitz scored two goals while Diaz had one goal and two assists for Mercyhurst.
 
Bachler picked up three assists and Alvarez had two assists.
 
Greeven made two saves in net and grabbed one steal for the Lakers.
 
Michael Rojas led the way for Salem with three goals and three assists. Milos Popovic recorded four goals and one assist. Robert Juhas scored two goals while single goals were scored by Austin Kephart, Inigo Velasco, Salvador Orozco and Uros Jevtic. Jevtic also had one assist.
 
Andrew Perry made four saves in net and had one steal for Salem (11-13, 5-2).