ERIE, Pa. - The last four Gannon-Mercyhurst women's lacrosse matches have been decided by four goals or less and all four went down to the wire. So, it was no surprise when Saturday's battle between the two rivals came down to the final three minutes again.

Acacia Cook (Syracuse, N.Y./Cicero North Syracuse) stood on her head in the first half, turning away 11 shots in the first 30 minutes. No. 6 Gannon then held off a late rally by No. 3 Mercyhurst as Krista Schunk (Honeoye Falls, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima) iced a 13-8 victory with a hat trick in the final three minutes of regulation.

Gannon jumped out to an 8-4 halftime lead behind Cook's 11 first-half saves. Colleen Dixon (Lafayette, N.Y./Lafayette) tallied four goals in the first half, including one with two seconds left to send the Lady Knights to the break with a four-goal advantage.

Mercyhurst scored the first two goals of the second half, cutting the deficit to 8-6. The Lakers held Gannon without a goal for the first 21 minutes and 17 seconds of the final stanza, but could only manage two scores during that time frame.

Taryn Millerd's (Shortsville, N.Y./Midlakes) second goal of the match at the 8:42 mark ended the drought and put the Lady Knights back up by three goals.

The visitors responded with two of the next three scores to cut the Gannon lead to 10-8 on Jessie Horeth's third goal with 6:02 showing on the clock. However, Schunk tallied her only three goals of the evening in the final 2:58 to account for the final 13-8 score.

Dixon led the Gannon offensive unit with four goals. Schunk recorded two scores. Millerd and Mary Eshenour (Waterloo, N.Y./Waterloo) added two goals each. Kayla Nelson (Oswego, N.Y./Oswego) and Rachel DerCola (Rochester, N.Y./Brighton) completed the scoring with one tally apiece.

Nelson led Gannon in assists with three. Millerd contributed two while DerCola recorded one. Cook finished the match with 15 saves.

Gannon improved to 9-3 overall and remained in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) post-season contention with a 3-2 mark. Mercyhurst dropped to 9-1 overall and 4-1 in conference play. The Lady Knights return to action Tuesday, April 7 against Indiana (Pa.) at Gannon University Field. Game time is scheduled for 4 p.m.

For a complete box score from Saturday's Gannon-Mercyhurst women's lacrosse match, please click here.