Andrew Wagner

Mercyhurst men’s lacrosse player Andrew Wagner was named to USILA’s All-American first team for the second straight year, while teammates Brian Scheetz and Zac Reid were named to the second team and honorable mention, respectively.

Wagner, a junior defender, totaled 25 groundballs and 11 caused turnovers while also consistently defending opposing teams’ top offensive performers this season.

Scheetz, a senior attackman, leads the top-ranked Lakers (18-0) with 72 points (26 goals, 46 assists) while also collecting 36 groundballs. Reid, a senior midfielder, has 29 goals – including seven in an 18-17 overtime win against second-ranked Limestone in the NCAA Division II semifinals this past Saturday — and 43 points.

The Lakers, which have recorded All-Americans in 10 straight years and 13 honorees overall in program history, face third-ranked Le Moyne (17-2) in the national championship game Sunday at 1 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

The Mercyhurst lacrosse team’s top midfield trio of Deven Alves, James Chayka and Zac Reid rebounded from a tough outing at the perfect time.
They combined for 12 goals and one assist, including the game’s final three goals, in the top-ranked Lakers 18-17 overtime win against No. 2 Limestone in a NCAA Division II semifinal Saturday at Tullio Field. This after they were held scoreless by Lake Erie in last weekend’s national quarterfinals.
“We didn’t have our best game last weekend,” said Reid, who had a career-high seven goals – one shy of the school record of eight set by Bryon Lindner against Molloy on April 22, 2008, and the most since Cameron McLean scored seven against Dominican (N.Y.) on April 4, 2009. “We benefited from having an off week and being fortunate enough to can our shots when we had the chance.”
Reid scored his seven goals on 14 of the Lakers’ 49 shots. Mercyhurst outshot the Saints by four despite being dominated on faceoffs – Limestone won 28-of-39 overall – and losing the groundball battle 45-33. The Saints’ 16 turnovers, which were nine more than the Lakers, helped Mercyhurst’s offense.
“You find a way to adapt and overcome at that point,” Lakers coach Chris Ryan said.
* Speaking of faceoffs: Ryan used four players – faceoff specialist Mitch McAvoy, midfielder Kyle Lindsay and defensemen Patrick Maloney and Ryan Sullivan – against Limestone’s Jake Ternosky. Yet Ternosky, the nation’s sixth best at faceoffs entering the game (.650 winning percentage), still dominated that category as the Saints’ lone faceoff man. “The Ternosky kid is just exceptional at what he does,” Ryan said. “We have a pretty good faceoff guy (in McAvoy, who was 10th in the nation at .597). But Jake Ternosky is the best in Division II, and he proved it today. You just have to find another way to beat a team, and we found a way to keep ourselves in the game and get the ball back at times.”
Ternosky said “I just felt like I was in a groove. When it all came down to it, it was the offense. These guys were producing and making my job a lot easier (and) just giving us momentum to do whatever we wanted.”
* Complete faith: Mercyhurst trailed 17-15 as the final minute of regulation began. Yet Ryan believed his team could complete the comeback.
“Everyone chips in. Everyone buys in. Everyone has a good idea of what has to be done on a daily basis,” he said. “To tell you the truth, hat comes from the seniors. They’ve been there and they’ve seen both ends of it, winning and losing. They know how to get it done. As far as I’m concerned, as a coach you can put a lot of trust in these kids. They just know how to get stuff done. They know their way around the block.”
* Taking blame: Limestone coach J.B. Clarke praised his team for “the battle these guys fought today.” Then he blamed himself for the loss.
“Coach Ryan did a great job getting his team ready to play. I think my team came ready to play,” Clarke said. “I don’t think I did a very good job of having them in the right spots at the right time.” Clarke also gave Ryan and the Lakers “because they played our way and beat us.”
* Erasing bad memories: Reid said thoughts of a 7-6 overtime loss to Dowling in the 2012 national semifinals at Tullio Field crept into his mind late in Saturday’s game. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t,” he said. “I felt terrible last year after the Dowling game. I didn’t want to feel that way again.”
* News and notes: Ryan and Clarke apparently had a heated verbal exchange after the game. When asked what happened, Ryan said, “I said good game.” … Riley scored three goals – his 52nd, 53rd and 54th of the season – for Limestone to finish his four-year career with 154 goals. … Mercyhurst has lost all four all-time meetings with Le Moyne, their national title-game opponent, including a last-second 6-5 loss in the 2007 championship game. … The Lakers can become the first team to win more than 18 games in a national championship season with a win next weekend.

- Victor Fernandes

James Chayka scored with 4.1 seconds left in regulation to force overtime, and then Deven Alves scored with 2:56 left in the extra period, to give No. 1 Mercyhurst an improbable 18-17 win against No. 2 Limestone in the NCAA Division II lacrosse semifinals Saturday at Tullio Field.
The Lakers (18-0) will face the winner of Saturday’s semifinal between Adelphi and Le Moyne in the title game May 26 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

- Victor Fernandes

Mercyhurst (17-0)
G – 5 Michael Grace
D – 11 Peter Plaskey
D – 18 Patrick Maloney
D – 20 Andrew Wagner
MF – 3 James Chayka
MF – 19 Zac Reid
A – 1 Deven Alves
A – 4 Jake McAndrew
A – 7 Brian Scheetz
A – 14 Brady Heseltine

Coach: Chris Ryan

Limestone (16-1)
G – 33 Christian Dzwilewski
D – 9 Glenn Trovato
D – 24 Jake Wojtowicz
D – 40 – Zach Missel
LSM – 28 Mike Ponzio
FS – 22 Jake Ternosky
MF – 7 Tor Reinholdt
A – 8 Todd Nakasuji
A – 10 Riley Loewen
A – 20 Corey Rich

Coach: J.B. Clarke

Mercyhurst men’s lacrosse coach Chris Ryan and Limestone coach J.B. Clarke shared their thoughts on the keys to success in their teams’ NCAA Division II semifinal matchup Saturday:

Mercyhurst coach Chris Ryan: “For us, I just think fundamentally we need to execute and we need to play good sound defense on Saturday. They are such a high-octane team with such skilled players really all over the field. They put a lot of pressure on you in all points offensively. You have to be able to play defense on these guys. They can fill the net up.
You can run scout (team practice), and you can diagram stuff up and hand out (scouting) reports. But until you see it at game speed in front of you, it’s a whole other experience especially with a team like Limestone. Again they can rotate the ball. They’re athletic. They can stretch you out by shooting from outside 12, 13 yards. Until you see that at game speed it’s pretty hard to prepare for.”
(In last Saturday’s quarterfinal win against) Lake Erie, we could have told you what kind of gum they were chewing by the time we got down to overtime. Because we haven’t played these guys, because we don’t have a whole lot of common opponents, the scouting report is going to be a little bit thinner for Saturday. I think both teams are going to have to rely on their ability to play the game a little bit more. You’re more apt to find some unfamiliar situations out on the field.
It adds another layer to the competitiveness and obviously the spontaneity of the game out there on Saturday. It’s just going to make it a heck of a lot more interesting with these two programs running into each other in such an important game. The lacrosse players are going to have to make some plays for both teams on Saturday, because there isn’t the level of (familiarity) between the two programs. You’re going to have to match up against the guy across from you and you’re going to have to play ball.”

Limestone coach J.B. Clarke: (The key is) limiting our mistakes. II think Mercyhurst is clearly one of the most disciplined teams we’ve played. They play excellent defense, and they tend not to make mistakes. Coach Ryan puts their guys in a position to be successful, and when they’re not in those positions they tend not to take chances that they shouldn’t.
They’ve played a lot of real close one-goal, two-goal games. Obviously they’ve come out on top. I guess they’re 34-1 over the last two seasons. They’re clearly not making a lot of mistakes and really limiting their opponents to taking advantage of any situations that they aren’t comfortable with. I think the discipline that Mercyhurst plays with is as big an obstacle for us as any.

- Victor Fernandes

NCAA Division II lacrosse quarterfinals
Who: No. 1 Mercyhurst (17-0) vs. No. 2 Limestone (16-1)
When: Saturday, 2 p.m.
Where: Tullio Field
Tickets: $10 (adults), $5 (students), 12-under free*
On the air: www.americaonesports.com/static/mercyhurst.html (livestream), www.hurstathletics.com (live statistics)
Information: www.hurstathletics.com
* Gates open at 12:30 p.m.

Players to watch
Mercyhurst – Sr. A Brian Scheetz (25 goals, 40 assists, 65 points), Jr. A Jake McAndrew (35-8-43), Jr. A Brady Heseltine (39-2-41), Sr. M James Chayka (24-13-37), Jr. D Patrick Maloney (31 groundballs, 21 caused turnovers), Jr. G Michael Grace (17-0 record, 7.51 goals-against average, .566 save percentage)
Limestone – Sr. A Riley Loewen (51 goals, 35 assists, 86 points), Sr. A Corey Rich (33-21-54), Sr. MF Zach Cummingss (32-9-41), Sr. FS Jake Ternosky (100 groundballs, 217-334 on faceoffs), Fr. MF Reid Reinholdt (10-22-32, 56 groundballs), Jr. D Glenn Trovato (29 groundballs, 13 caused turnovers)

What to watch
Mercyhurst – The Lakers can advance to the national championship game for the second time in three years and third time since 2007 with a win. … They hold a 4-3 lead in the all-time series with Limestone. But they lost their only two NCAA tournament games against the Saints – 12-4 on May 17, 2003, and 14-12 on May 22, 2004, in Gaffney, S.C. … The Lakers have a NCAA Division II-leading seven wins against ranked teams and nine wins against teams with 10 or more victories this season. … They also have five one-goal wins. … Mercyhurst ranks among the top 10 nationally in scoring offense (sixth at 13.47 goals scored per game), scoring defense (fifth at 6.94 goals per game), faceoff percentage (sixth at .614), scoring margin (fourth at 6.53 goals per game) and assists per game (seventh at 8.0 per game). They face a Saints team that stands among the top 10 in those categories – third in scoring offense (13.88 per game), eighth in scoringZa defense (7.94 per game), third in faceoff percentage (.643), fifth in scoring margin (5.94 per game) and first in assists per game (9.47 per game) – as well as second in groundballs per game (38.65) and 10th in man-up offense (36.5 percent). … The Lakers have scored double-digit goals in 14 straight games. … They have held 16-of-17 opponents below their season scoring average. … Scheetz can add to his school-record 226 points (90 goals, 136 assists). … Chayka and senior MF Zac Reid (22-14-36) were held scoreless in a 10-9 overtime win against Lake Erie in the national quarterfinals last weekend.

Limestone – The Saints have won two national championships (2000 and 2002) and reached the title game seven times. They lost to Dowling 11-10 in the 2012 title game. … They have reached the national playoffs in 14 straight seasons. … The Saints have won nine straight games since their only loss of the season, 7-6 against national semifinalist Le Moyne on March 16 in Baltimore. … They beat Seton Hill 16-13 in the quarterfinals last weekend. … Loewen, the Saints’ all-time leader with 151 career goals, is tied with New York Institute of Technology sophomore A Luke Miller for the national lead with 86 points. NYIT’s season ended last weekend with a quarterfinal loss to Adelphi. … Loewen also ranks third with 5.06 points per game, fourth in goals and sixth with 3.00 goals per game. … He has scored three goals or more nine times and three points or more in all 17 games.

– Victor Fernandes

NCAA Division II final four schedule
Semifinals – Saturday
No. 2 Limestone (16-1) at No. 1 Mercyhurst (17-0), 2 p.m.
No. 3 Le Moyne (16-2) at No. 4 Adelphi (14-2), 4 p.m.
Championship game – May 26
at Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia
Semifinal winners, 1 p.m.

Mercyhurst men’s 
lacrosse team has a lot riding on this weekend’s ECAC Division II Lacrosse League championships.

The Lakers, 14-0 and ranked No. 1 in the USILA’s national ranking, can lock up a top seed in the South Region and home-field advantage through the first two rounds of the NCAA Division II playoffs by winning the ECAC finals at Tullio Field. The Lakers play Wheeling 
Jesuit today in an 11 a.m. semifinal. No. 2 Seton Hill takes on No. 3 Lake Erie today at 2 p.m., with the winners advancing to Sunday’s championship game at noon at Tullio Field.

Check out Victor Fernandes’ preview for the Lakers here.

UPDATE: Mercyhurst beat Wheeling Jesuit 14-3 Friday to advance to Sunday’s ECAC championship game. Jake McAndrew and Brady Heseltine had four goals apiece to pace the Lakers.

UPDATE 2: Mercyhurst (16-0) beat Lake Erie 13-7 Sunday to win the first ECAC title. The Lakers also learned that they will host Lake Erie in the NCAA Division II quarterfinals Saturday at a time to be determined.

The defending Division II champion Mercyhurst University men’s lacrosse team opens its season Feb. 11 with a game against Ohio Valley at Vienna, W.Va. The Lakers’ first home match is March 3 against Chestnut Hill.

A look at the Lakers’ preparations for the season, courtesy of Mercyhurst’s sports information department: