ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's lacrosse team saw its playoff chances take a hit with a 7-5 loss on the road at Mercyhurst University Tuesday evening in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference game from Tullio Field.
 
The Rock slips to 5-8 overall and drops to ninth place in the PSAC standings at 4-6 in league games, 2.5 games back of a five-way tie for third place (6-3). Mercyhurst improves to 9-5 overall and moves into that five-way tie at 6-3 in conference games.
 
The Lakers used a 4-0 stretch in the first half to open up a 5-2 halftime lead that SRU would never recover from. The Rock cut the deficit to one-goal on two occasions in the second half, including making it 6-5 with 7:54 to play, but could never find the equalizer.
 
Mercyhurst finished the game with advantages of 30-19 in total shots, 9-5 in draw controls and 29-26 in ground balls.
 
Slippery Rock got a single goal from five different players on offense with Hayley Pimentel, Francesca Lindelow, ShyAnne Toomer, Emily Benham and Kelsey Thoensen all finding the back of the net to cap the scorers. Toomer's goal brings her career scoring tally to 99 points, just one shy of becoming the 14th player in program history to record 100 points.
 
Rachel Shaw led the defensive effort with four caused turnovers and seven ground balls. Haley Barrett made 12 saves in goal while holding the Lakers to just seven goals.
 
Mercyhurst got two goals from Julia Rescott, who was the only player for either team to score more than one goal. Kaitlyn Lippert earned the win in goal after recording six saves.
 
Slippery Rock will briefly break from PSAC action when it hosts Lake Erie Thursday night at 7 p.m. in a non-conference game that was originally scheduled for early March, but had to be postponed.
 

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