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.

Rebecca Haener wrapped up a solid senior season and career with the Mercyhurst University tennis 
team recently, helping the Lakers to an NCAA Division II tournament berth.

Rebecca Haener

Haener, a Mercyhurst Prep graduate, went 14-8 as the Lakers’ No. 3 singles player and was 16-6 in doubles with partner Courtney Thompson. Haener finished her career 53-32 in singles and  62-28 in doubles.

Read more on Haener in this week’s On Campus notebook.

Also in this week’s notebook, Villa Maria graduate Amy Boxer helped Thiel College win the first-ever Presidents’ Athletic Conference women’s lacrosse tournament title. Also, former Harbor Creek softball player Lauren Stoczynski proved to be a key contributor as a junior first baseman at Westminster College.

Fairview graduate Brit Claridge, a senior cross country runner at Hobart College, recently won the Coach Ron Fleury Cross Country Award for his overall dedication to his academics, the team and community.

Meanwhile, Gannon unveiled its student-athletes of the year this past week and Penn State Behrend’s men’s soccer team prepared for an upcoming nine-day trip to Spain.

Get all the details in On Campus.

Former Gannon coach Jerry Slocum completed his second consecutive winning season at Youngstown State at 17-15 following the Penguins’ elimination in the Horizon League playoffs. YSU received a bid to the CTI tournament, and defeated Oakland 99-87 before losing in overtime at home to Canisius 84-82, surrendering a 22-point lead early  in the second half.

The 18-16 record was the best since the 1990s, and YSU did not have a winning season for 11 seasons until going 16-15 in 2011-12. The CTI tournament was the first postseason action for the Penguins since 1977. The 61-year-old is 92-152 at Youngstown.

Slocum came to YSU in 2005 after coaching Gannon for nine seasons (179-86, the last six clubs making the NCAA Division II tournament. He previously was a successful coach at Geneva College and Nyack. He  has a record of 673-476 in 38 seasons.

Former Mercyhurst Prep star Josh Chojnacki was a reserve junior center with the club, seeing limited playing time.

Assistant coaches Mike Wernicki and Brian  DePaoli are from Erie.

– Bob Jarzomski

North East All-State guard Alex Artise is part of the class of 2013 recruits that will be coming to Mercyhurst women’s basketball coach Deanna Richard’s team this fall.

The Lakers have to replace seven seniors from the 2012-2013 team that went 10-17 and lost in the first round of the PSAC playoffs to IUP.

Also joining Artise in the early signing period is Hayley Andres, Natalie Piagessi, Jessica Bell, Katie Fischer and Maria Penascino.

Artise, a 5-9 guard, averaged 16.0 ppg., set the school record in career  points (1,454) and made the Class AA second team for the Grapepickers. She was the Erie Times-News D-10 player of the year.  Artise averaged 17 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 3.9 steals per game as a junior

Andres  is a 5-7 guard from Franklin and first team All-Region 5. She averaged 10.5 ppg. for the Knights, and as a junior, she averaged 9.4 points, six rebounds, and five assist. Andres also played volleyball at Franklin Area and was the school’s student council class president. Piaggesi, a 6-1 senior at Seton LaSalle, helped her team win its first state title in 30 years in 2011-12. She averaged 13.5 points per game. and was an honor roll student at Seton LaSalle, which lost in the Class AA semifinals this season. Bell, a 5-10 forward, averaged 11 points and 8.3 rebounds per game at Lake Central High last season. The Crown Point, Indiana, native was named team MVP and was an all-area honorable mention selection.  Bell earned scholar-athlete and academic all-star nods. Fischer averaged 18 points and five assists per game as a junior at Ambridge High, and around 18 points this season while going over the 1,000 mark. The 5-7 guard has been named all-conference each of her three seasons at Ambridge. As a freshman, she made 10 three-pointers in one game, setting a school record.  Penascino, a 5-9 guard, put up eight points and five assists per game as a junior at Bethel Park. She was also a long jumper on the school’s track and field team. Penascino and Piaggesi were AAU teammates last summer.

“I’m very excited about this class. They bring a high talent level and a wide range of skills,” said Richard. “Each of these young ladies is a great fit for Mercyhurst University and our vision as a basketball program.”

The Lakers are looking to add a couple of more players to the squad.

Bob Jarzomski

Shake hands with Luis Leao, and it feels like a couple of bones are broken by his right-handed vise grip, so fist pumps would suffice when one greets the easy-going, first All-American in Mercyhurst men’s basketball history.

Leao, a strong 6-foot 5-inch forward from Brusque, Brazil, who did not have a strong supporting cast in his 2012-13 senior season, still led the Lakers to a 16-13 season and a berth in the PSAC playoffs with consistently solid performances throughout the season. Leao, who played three seasons with the Lakers, was selected to the 16-player National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC)  Division II All-American team.

Leao averaged 18.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game as a senior on a team depleted by graduation and three top players who were dismissed from the team for violating school policies. He set a school record with 166 made free throws, connecting on 81.4 percent from the foul line. He shot 47.8 percent from the field. Leao scored 1,221 points and averaged 17.4 points per game in three seasons.

Leao played just 15 games in 2011-12, recovering from a major knee injury from the end of the previous season, then a shoulder injury during the season. It was that devastating injury at Indiana, Pa. in the final 2010-11 regular season game that likely cost Mercyhurst, a 20-game winner,  its first NCAA Division II tournament appearance.

“Without Luis, we have lost a lot of our firepower, and the Atlantic Region committee recognizes that,” Mercyhurst coach Gary Manchel said at the time.

Leao loves basketball, and said he loved his four years at Mercyhurst, where he was a tough competitor but always seemed to have a sincere smile and displayed sportsmanship on the court. But his priority is to be in the medical field, and as a biology major,  Leao has a 3.87 grade point average at Mercyhurst.

“I have contacts in Boston, and I hope to further my education and get a degree in medicine, which has always been my goal,” Leao said after the Lakers lost at Edinboro in the PSAC playoffs, his final game.

Manchel, finishing his 10th season at Mercyhurst, said replacing Leao will be a formidable task.

“He’s one of the best players I have ever coached, and one of the best young human beings that I’ve ever been associated with,” Manchel said. “Luis will be successful and people will be the better for it. He was a special player here, and a special person.”

– Bob Jarzomski

Talk about a plethora of basketball knowledge, and success, in Erie’s small college men’s basketball, though one era came to an end.

At the end of this season, Edinboro’s Greg Walcavich, Gannon’s John Reilly, Mercyhurst’s Gary Manchel and Penn State Behrend’s Dave Niland have collected a total of 1,615 victories in  a combined 89 seasons of coaching. Walcavich, in his 24th season at Edinboro, announced his retirement Wednesday. He coached five years at Birmingham Southern and two at West Virginia Wesleyan. Reilly had 12 seasons as head coach at Brescia (Ky.) before coming to Gannon in 2005, while Manchel, in his 10th season at Mercyhurst,  headed UMass-Lowell for nine seasons.  Niland has been at Division III Behrend all 19 seasons as a head coach.

The total  mark of 1,615-948 is a .630 winning percentage. The foursome has collected numerous conference titles, and all have had teams in the NCAA tournaments, with Walcavich (Birmingham Southern) and Reilly (Brescia) guiding their clubs to NAIA tournaments. Niland’s Behrend squad collected the AMCC crownwith a 63-60 win over Medaille to claim a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament, where they l0st at No. 20 Wooster 62-44 on March 2. Walcavich, Reilly and Manchel have all three of their teams in the postseason.

Walcavich finished with a mark of 584-314 in 31 seasons (.650). The Rutgers ’73 graduate is 430-251 (.631) as the all-time leader at Edinboro, 18-10 this season.

Reilly, from Bowie State, is 373-231 (.617)  in 20 seasons, 141-86 (.621)  at Gannon including 22-6 this season. The highlight was a 30-4 season in 2008-09 when the Knights advanced to the Elite Eight.

Manchel is 295-240 (.551) after his 19th season. The Vermont graduate is the all-time leader at Mercyhurst with a 164-115 mark (.588), 16-13 this season, which ended with a PSAC playoff loss to Edinboro.

Niland, who played against Gannon at LeMoyne (N.Y.), is 363-162 (.691) at Behrend, finishing this season 20-9 after a sixth NCAA D-III tournament appearance.

- Bob Jarzomski