PHILADELPHIA – The No. 5 seed University of Denver men's lacrosse team's season came to an end in the national semifinals at the hands of No. 1 seed at defending national champions Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field, by a count of 13-6.  
 
DENVER NOTES:

• In the second quarter, Michael Lampert got his 100^th point, becoming the 23rd Pio in DI era to get to 100 points and the 18th fastest Pio to reach 100 career points (47 career games).
• Lampert's multi-goal game was his seventh of the season.
• Richie Connell's multi-goal game was his sixth of the season.
• Malcolm Kleban made nine saves in the first half to keep the Pios in it in the opening 30 minutes. Kleban finished in double figures in saves for the 10^th time this season.
• AJ Mercurio finished with three caused turnovers, his sixth multi-CT game this season.
• Notre Dame improved to 15-11 in the Division I series. The two teams have alternated wins in the last six meetings.
• Denver falls to 3-1 vs. Notre Dame in NCAA Tournament match-ups between the two programs.
• Denver finished 13-4 in the campaign, Denver's winningest season since 2018. 
• The Pioneers super senior class finished in a tie for eighth in senior class wins with 48.

FIRST QUARTER:
Denver opened the scoring with 10:58 to go in the first quarter when Richie Connell dodged from X and buried it into the corner to make it 1-0 Pios.
 
Notre Dame ended the quarter on a 3-0 run with a pair of goals from Chris Kavanagh and a Pat Kavanagh marker.
 
SECOND QUARTER:
Back-to-back goals from the Crimson and Gold got the score back to even in the first 3:16 of the period. Michael Lampert netted his 22^nd of the season to pull the Pioneers back to within one with his 100^th career point. Stephen Avery canned his seventh of the year from the Denver midfield off a feed from Cody Malawsky to even things back up at 3-3 with 11:44 to go.
 
Denver had a couple chances to take the lead, but couldn't find the back of the net before Notre Dame go back-to-back tallies on either side of the media timeout from Jake Taylor and Jordan Faison to make it 5-3 with 3:54 to go.
 
Out of a Denver timeout with under a minute to play in the first half, Mic Kelly hit Connell who dodged back up field, slung the ball past a jumping defender and beat the Notre Dame goalie to pull the Pioneers back to within one at 5-4 heading into the half.
 
THIRD QUARTER:
Notre Dame controlled the third frame, Denver's best scoring quarter of the season as a whole. The Irish netted four of the five goals in the quarter to take a four-goal lead into the final 15 minutes at the Linc.
 
FOURTH QUARTER:
Joshua Carlson got the fourth-quarter scoring started to trim the Notre Dame lead to three and break the long-scoring drought for the Denver offense. A couple of possessions later, the Irish answered with their 10^th goal of the afternoon. UND added three more in the quarter to end the game on a 4-0 run.