AUBURNDALE, Mass. - The No. 3-seeded Norwich University saw its postseason run come to a halt after falling to No. 2-seeded Lasell College, 16-9, in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) semifinal round on Friday afternoon.

Lasell (12-4) advances onto the GNAC Championship title game for the second time in program history (2011) and will await the winner of the second semifinal game between No. 4 Johnson & Wales University and No. 1 Emmanuel, which plays tonight at 7 p.m. The championship game will take place on Sunday, May 8 at the highest-seed.

Lasell scored back-to-back goals in the first three minutes of the opening face-off to take the early 2-0 lead. Norwich needed just 22 seconds to tie up the contest as senior Matt Flaherty (Portland, Maine) scored the Cadets' first goal before before senior Jimmy Warden (North Andover, Mass.) found classmate Ryan McCarthy (Medford, Mass.) open as he drilled in the shot into the back of the net for the tying goal to set the slate clean. The Lasers would end the first quarter by scoring four straight to take the 6-2 lead.

The Cadets needed just 52 seconds to open the second quarter to make it a three-point game as Flaherty scored his second goal on a McCarthy assist. Both teams would trade goals, with Flaherty recording the hat trick, before Lasell scored two straight to extend the lead to five, 9-5 at the 6:33 mark. Norwich would find the net three minutes late as freshman Dylan Avery (South Burlington, Vt.) scored unassisted to cut down the margin to four, only to watch it go up one more when Lasell's Casey Sullivan (Quaker Hill, Conn.) ripped a laser shot to the top of the crossbar off a feed from Austin Tomasetti (Elmsford, N.Y.) to make it 10-5 with one second remaining as both teams took the final face-off of the half to signal the break.

Trailing by five, the Cadets looked to get back into the game, pulling off eight shots in the third quarter but none of them would land into the back of the Lasers' net. Lasell would also pull the trigger eight times, find the net twice, one that resulted on a man-up opportunity, in the third quarter to take the 12-5 lead after 45 minutes of play.

The Lasers scored twice in the fourth quarter to make it five straight for the 14-5 lead with 7:43 to play. Norwich refused to give up in the final three minutes as the Cadets scored three straight, twice from McCarthy with Warden scoring his first of the game in between. Lasell would hold on in the final seconds to clinch the 16-9 final score.

McCarthy would end the day with a team-high four goals and an assist with Flaherty picking up the hat trick in the loss. Freshman Ian Kriger (Burlington, Mass.) turned away 11 shots out of the 37 shots faced on the losing end, while face-off specialist Jack Dwyer (Shelburne, Vt.) won 19-of-29 on the 'X'.

Lasell's freshman Ryan Madden (Hiingham, Mass.) led the team with six goals and an assist as Josh Gallant (Hampstead, N.H.) recorded a hat trick in the win. Junior goalie Jorge Salazar (Waltham, Mass.) picked up his 10th win of the season after coming up with 16 saves on 35 shots faced, as junior Chase Swift (Branford, Conn.) went 7-of-23 on the face-offs.

The Cadets close the 2016 campaign with a 9-9 overall record and finished 6-2 in league play on the year.