FAIRFIELD, CT -- The University of Delaware men's lacrosse team stumbled in its regular season finale Saturday, falling to Colonial Athletic Association foe Sacred Heart 15-7.

Sacred Heart (7-5, 2-4 CAA) jumped out to an 8-1 halftime lead and reeled off nine straight goals at one point to down the Blue Hens for the second time in the last five seasons.

Delaware gained the No. 3 seed in the upcoming CAA Tournament and will travel to No. 2 seed Hofstra this Wednesday, April 30, for a 7 p.m. semifinal game at Shuart Stadium in Hempstead. Drexel, which defeated Villanova 11-7 Saturday night, is the top seed and will host Villanova Wednesday at 7 p.m. Had Villanova won, the Hens would have knocked out of the tournament. The Hens (9-6, 3-3 CAA), the defending CAA champions and a 2007 NCAA national semifinalist.

Vincent Giordano (at right) led the Hens with three goals while Martin Cahill scored twice and Curtis Dickson extended his goal-scoring streak to 24 straight games with a goal and an assist.

Dickson, who now leads the team with 44 goals this season, extended his scoring streaks to 25 straight games with a point and 24 straight games with a goal. The goal-scoring streak is the longest for a UD player since Jim Bruder scored in 24 straight games in 1996-98.

Delaware, which defeated Sacred Heart 12-9 last season but fell to the Pioneers 9-8 in 2006 in Fairfield, was denied its 10th win of the season and head coach Bob Shillinglaw fell short in his bid to win his 250th game all-time at Delaware. The Hens have won 10 or more each of the last four seasons.

Timmy Katz and Evan Morgan led the way for Sacred Heart as each scored twice and dished out three assists. Dan Casciano, Nick Hautau, and Bobby Rushton added two goals apiece for the Pioneers and goalkeeper Ricardo Vargas posted 16 saves.

Giordano gave the Blue Hens a quick 1-0 lead just 1:21 into the game when he scored his 21st goal of the season, but Sacred Heart answered just 47 seconds later to tie the game on a goal by Gerhard. That goal began a run of nine straight goals by the Pioneers, who took an 8-1 lead at the half with Russo and Rushton each scoring twice.

Sacred Heart extended its streak to nine straight goals when Tony Tanzi scored 1:26 into the second half to extend the lead to 9-1 before Delaware ended a scoring drought of just under 31 minutes with Giordano scoring with 12:46 left in the third quarter.

The Blue Hens later got back to back goals from Cahill and Giordano to end the third quarter and cut the deficit to 10-4. But Sacred Heart pulled away again, scoring three straight goals - two by Casciano - to up the margin to 12-4. Delaware scored two goals in the final two minutes, on tallies by Cahill and Brett Manney, but it wasn’t enough.

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