The Misericordia University men's lacrosse team won 9-7 over Lasell College in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on a sunny Tuesday afternoon at Sea Gull Stadium in Salisbury, Maryland.

Chris Fleming led the way with two goals and two assists. Jake Kocovsky scored twice, James Wood had a goal and an assist, while Patrick Kellish, Paul Hanrahan, Kyle Reese and Brandon Winslow each netted once. Sean McSwiggan and John Tierney each had an assist.

Reese put MU on the board with a solo goal 49 seconds into the game to give MU an early 1-0 lead.

Lasell scored four minutes later to tie things up at one apiece.

Goals from Wood, Kellish, Hanrahan and Fleming over the next eight minutes pushed MU's lead to 5-1 with 12:29 to go in the half.

Three minutes later, Fleming went toward goal, threw the ball to Kocovsky on the right wing, who fired the ball into the roof of the net for a 6-1 lead.

Lasell scored the final goal of the half as MU went into the locker room with a 6-2 lead.

Seven minutes into the third quarter, Wood found Fleming all alone in front of the goal and he fired a low shot past the keeper to make it 7-2.

Four minutes later, Reese lobbed it to McSwiggan in the middle, two defenders converged so he gave it to Winslow who caught it, took one step and fired a low shot by the keeper to make it 8-2.

Lasell took over the game in the next 10 minutes, scoring the next five goals as the MU lead shrank to one at 8-7 with 5:52 left in the game.

Kocovsky came sprinting down the right side and fired into the top part of the net to make it 9-7 with just over five minutes to go.

With 4:21 left, Matthew Beck was called for a slash and Antonio Whyte came in to play goalie. He made two saves, including one on a shot from point blank range to preserve the lead. Beck had a strong day in goal overall for MU, making several impressive saves.

Afterwards, head coach Jim Ricardo talked about the historic win. "We're on the map now, we play hard for four quarters, we don't give up and we believe in each other… It was a great opening round of the NCAA tournament. We're privileged to be here and we're excited for round two."

Misericordia is 13-3 and will play Salisbury, the host school and the #1 team in the country, tomorrow at 4:00.