GENEVA, N.Y.—With its back against the wall, the Mount St. Mary's University men's lacrosse team put together a strong first half and held on for a 10-8 Northeast Conference win at Hobart College this afternoon. Coupled with Saint Joseph's 13-8 win at Sacred Heart, the Mount secured the fourth and final spot in the NEC Tournament.
 
Mount St. Mary's (5-9, 2-4) scored four times in each of the first two quarters to jump out to an 8-3 halftime lead. Bubba Johnson got the Mountaineers on the board first, scoring off an unsettled situation set up by a failed clear by the Statesmen. Two minutes later Ryan Lamon started his two-goal, two-assist day with an unassisted tally. Sophomore Tanner John got Hobart's offense started with a bounce shot that hit the net just under the crossbar.
 
The Mount stretched its lead to 5-1 with three goals in a span of just over two minutes bridging the first and second quarters. Senior Taylor Vanderbeek stopped the run with a rip from the left alley for his 15th goal of the year. Mount St. Mary's came back with another three-goal run to go up 8-2, but senior Alex Love scored with a screaming low-to-high shot to close out the first half scoring.
 
Junior Cooper Stefaniak recorded the only goal of the third quarter to get Hobart within four heading into the final frame.
 
Love opened the fourth quarter scoring, finishing a feed from junior Matt Opsahl in an unsettled situation. The Mount stopped Hobart's three-goal run with back-to-back scores for a 10-5 lead with 6:41 remaining. The Statesmen got three goals in the final three minutes with Love starting the charge with his team-leading 22nd of the year, followed by strikes from junior Frank Brown and senior Brendan Saylor, but ran out of time.
 
Love's fifth hat trick of the year raised his career goal total to 129, two behind Larry Adkinson '62 for 10th place in Hobart history. It also raised Love's career point total to 156, six shy of Daryl Veltman's record for a Division I Statesman. Brown logged a goal and two assists. Sophomore goalie Jackson Brown recorded 12 saves.
 
Evan Gormley had a team-high three goals for the Mountaineers. Nick Haley was 12-of-22 at the faceoff X and grabbed a game-high seven ground balls. Matt Vierheller earned the win in goal with 10 saves. Mount St. Mary's had the advantage in shots (47-27) and ground balls (40-21) and went 2-for-3 with the extra-man.
 
Hobart (7-6, 4-2) enters the NEC Tournament as the No. 2 seed and will play No. 3 Bryant on Thursday evening at Saint Joseph's.