North Andover, Mass. - The fourth-ranked Adelphi men's lacrosse program will not advance to the Northeast-10 Conference finals after dropping an 11-17 decision at no. 2 Merrimack Friday afternoon in semifinal action at Merrimack Stadium.

Despite a 3-3 score after the opening fifteen minutes of play, the Panthers (11-4) found themselves trailing after the Warriors (14-1) rattled off a 7-2 run throughout the second quarter. Merrimack held an advantage in nearly every category, and was a perfect 20-20 in clear attempts. Adelphi fell short at the faceoff X, only winning 14 compared to the host's 18. 

Nicolas Racalbuto was one of two Adelphi players to register multi-goal games, finishing with his seventh hat trick of the season. Also scoring a couple of goals was NE10 second team selection John Arcidiacono who also grabbed two ground balls. For the home team, Charlie Bertrand, an NE10 First Team honoree, put up a career-high eight points on six goals and two assists, finishing one goal back of his single-game best, as well.

The Brown and Gold got as close as two goals with an Ian Kirby tally at 11:10, but the Warriors scored four of the final five goals to close out the half and double up the Panthers at the game's midpoint (10-5). Coming out of the break Merrimack tacked on two more before Michael Paccione gave life to the Panther offense, but that was answered with three consecutive strikes from the higher seed. James Hall and Arcidiacono registered two of the final three goals of the quarter, but Adelphi was in an eight-goal deficit with just 15 minutes left to play. 

Back-to-back man up possessions allowed the Panthers to score twice to start the fourth, courtesy of Racalbuto and Michael Osmundsen, but the margin was too great to overcome as the Warriors advance to the NE10 Championship for the 12^th time in league history, second only to Le Moyne's 17 trips to the title game. Merrimack will meet No. 17 Saint Anselm in the league title game on Sunday, May 6 right back at Merrimack Stadium, with game time set for 1 p.m. The Hawks stunned top-seeded Le Moyne in overtime to advance to the NE10 finals.

The program, which was ranked fourth in the national poll at the beginning of the week, will await their fate in the NCAA tournament with the results of the Division II Selection Show on Sunday evening. The men's show precedes the women's selection show and will begin approximately at 7:30. p.m. The show will begin at or around the scheduled time at ncaa.com.

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About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past eight seasons, has collected 26 regular season conference titles, 28 tournament championships, 37 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup four times (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), while winning six NCAA Division II National Championships.

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