ERIE, Pa. – The UIndy men's lacrosse team came up just short in a bid for their second straight win over a top-10 team, falling 12-10 to No. 7 Mercyhurst on Saturday afternoon.
 
Down by three early in the third quarter, the Lakers (8-2) held UIndy (6-4) to just two goals over the final 28 minutes of action. The Hounds were led by a hat trick from Sam Horning and two goals each from Tyler Johnston and Shawn Kimble.
 
Horning opened the scoring just 1:19 into the game with an unassisted tally. The two teams traded two-goal spurts until a Mercyhurst tally with 2:15 left in the quarter tied things up. The Hounds closed out the period strong with last minute markers from Parker Johnson and Horning, the last coming with 11 seconds left in the quarter to make it 5-3 Hounds.
 
Defense was the name of the game in the second quarter as both teams were held to two goals each in the period. A Keyan McQueen goal at the 7:14 mark cut the UIndy lead to one but Parker Kump's goal with 45 seconds left in the half made it 7-5 Hounds at the break.
 
Kimble gave the Greyhounds their biggest lead of the day with his first goal of the day 1:03 into the third. But the hosts dominated the rest of the period, answering with three straight goals to tie the game at eight.
 
Johnston put the Hounds back in front midway through the third, but the lead was short-lived. Mercyhurst netted the next four tallies while keeping the Hounds off the board for over 18 minutes of action.
 
Kimble gave the Hounds hope late when his second goal of the day cut the deficit to two with 1:56 to play. However, the Hounds weren't able to draw any closer as the Lakers were able to run out the clock while preserving their slim margin.
 
Shots were 30-29 in favor of the Lakers, who also held a 20-14 edge in shots on goal. Jarod Kimble stopped eight shots for UIndy. Matt Wells took over for the Lakers at the start of the second quarter and turned aside four shots.
 
Mercyhurst forced 15 UIndy turnovers while the Hounds caused 10 Laker mistakes.
 
UIndy finished with a 24-23 edge in total ground balls. Max Grove led all Greyhounds with six and Dominic Guarino was right behind him in second place on the team with four.
 
The Greyhounds will have another chance to face off against a nationally-ranked team in their next contest, when they head to Greensburg, Pa. next Saturday to take on No. 15 Seton Hill. The opening faceoff is set for 1:00 p.m.