Courtesy of Army Athletic Communications

ANNAPOLIS, MD – The historic Army West Point men's lacrosse season has come to a close after a heartbreaking 10-9 quarterfinal loss to no. 5 seed Penn State.
 
"For my Army team", said head coach Joe Alberici. "I'm just incredibly proud of the effort they put forth today. I said to them in the locker room and we've been feeling this the past three or four weeks, it's easy when you're playing well, at the top of it and things are flowing. You just feel the energy. To-day I wouldn't call that our best right away, yet they continued to grind away and still found a way to put themselves in a position to win and that's representing the jersey. Just incredibly proud and thankful to be called their coach."
 
Army's offense was humming in the first five minutes of the game, quickly jumping out to a 2-0 lead after goals from Gunnar Fellows and Jacob Morin.
 
But then momentum switched. Penn State rattled off the next six goals to take a 6-2 lead. Reese Burek would nail a nice shot off of a rebound to cut the deficit to three but the Nittany Lions scored with 40 second left in the half to go back up four.
 
Fellows scored to kick off a 4-1 Army run to get back into the game. Will Coletti, Bailey O'Connor, and Morin cut the Penn State lead to 9-7 early in the fourth quarter.
 
After Penn State made it a three-goal game with 7:38 left, Army battled back yet again. Fellows netted his third goal for his second consecutive game with a hat trick and with 3:41 Finn McCullough cut the deficit to just one.
 
After some big stops from Knox Dent, who had eight saves on the day, Army had the ball with a man up with 24 second remaining. 
 
After a scrum to get the ball, Morin fired it into the net but it was milliseconds too late and the goal didn't count. 
 
Army had four losses this season by a combined five goals. They battled until the end regardless of who they were up against. From being picked fourth in the Patriot League, to being one of the final eight team standing, there is a lot to be proud of for this team.