Waltham, Mass. – Pace University slipped past Bentley University 11-9 in a hard-fought, closely contested game Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the Northeast-10 men's lacrosse championships.

The Setters, the No. 5 seed, advance on to the semifinals where they will meet the No. 1 seed Saint Anselm. Bentley, the No. 4 seed, sees its record fall to 6-4.

It was a tale of two quarters in the second half. Bentley trailed at halftime 6-4 but erased that deficit with a 4-0 3^rd quarter that gave them an 8-6 lead heading into the final 15 minutes.

But the 4^th quarter went Pace's way. They scored four straight goals over the first eight-plus minutes to take a 10-8 lead, with the run punctuated by a man-up goal by attacker Alan Singleton at the 6:17 mark.

Bentley was kept off the scoreboard until the 2:42 mark, when graduate student Joey Tesoriero (Huntington Station, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills) scored off a feed from senior Kris Campbell (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow) to make it 10-9.

Bentley won the ensuring face-off to gain possession, and a shot by Tesoriero with 2:14 left was saved by Pace goalie Louis Ragusa.

Pace successfully cleared the ball, but behind the cage Bentley's Matt Dold (Medfield, Mass./Medfield) caused a turnover and secured the ground ball. A successful clear gave Bentley a chance to tie with about a minute to go. But a shot by midfielder Ryan Birch (Walpole, Mass./Walpole) was saved by Ragusa with 53 seconds left, and a ground ball and follow up shot by freshman Connor Gill (Baldwin Place, N.Y./Somers) from close range was saved by Ragusa as well to deny the tying goal.

Pace then quickly transitioned down the field and attacker Jake Veres scored with 34 seconds left as Bentley attempted to force a turnover. That gave the Setters an 11-9 lead.

Pace then won the ensuing face-off and ran out the clock for the victory.

Tesoriero led Bentley with three goals and one assist, while goalie Keaton Roarick (Old Saybrook, Conn./Old Saybrook) made 13 saves.