On Saturday, March 27, the Lakers were defeated by Edinboro University in the first round of the women’s basketball PSAC tournament held at Edinboro.

With a final score of 42-62, the Mercyhurst team has to say goodbye to its season after that rough night.

Edinboro’s win hinged on the field goal percentage of each team. At the end of the game, Edinboro shot 0.471 field goal percentage and 0.473 field goal percentage for three-pointers, whereas Mercyhurst got only .320 and .105, respectively. Edinboro also had almost twice as many steals as Mercyhurst, though the Lakers out-rebounded the Fighting Scots, 33-31.

Edinboro had a crushing first period in which they took a 16-point advantage that the Lakers could not recover from.

At the break, the Lakers trailed by 20 and although the team outscored Edinboro in the final two periods of play, they could not close the scoring gap to single digits.

Junior Natalie Piaggesi, with 14 points and .75 field goal percentage, was one of the leaders of the women’s team on the court.

“We didn’t come out to a great start and that set us back. All their shots were on and we struggled a bit to get our shots to fall,” Piaggesi said.

Piaggesi not only exhibited her skills in this game, but throughout the season too.

“It’s exciting. I couldn’t do it without my teammates. They’ve been really helpful,” Piaggesi said. Piaggesi finished her year with 429 points, 39 blocked shots and 18 steal rebounds overall.

Junior Angela Heintz expressed how harsh this defeat was for the Lakers. “The team is definitely taking the loss hard. No one wants the season to end, especially knowing it’s our seniors’ last game,” Heintz said.

Heintz scored five points against Edinboro and finished her season with 385 points and 132 assists, making her an important asset as well.

Adrienne Kloecker and Maria Lapertosa also displayed a good level in the game with seven points each.

Although the season is over, the Lakers are already thinking about next year’s new opportunity.

The women know that next year the team will be filled with seniors and upperclassmen which will make the team more mature to face all of their challenges.

Moreover, according to Heintz, this defeat is motivation going into next season. She stated that they are going to work as hard as they can to come back next year better than this season so they do not have to feel this same pain.

The loss concludes the Lakers’ record at 14-15 overall, while Edinboro improves to 20-9.

Next, the Fighting Scots advance to the quarterfinals of the PSAC tournament to face California University of Pennsylvania this week.