The Muhlenberg men's lacrosse team suffered its third straight close loss, falling 12-11 at 17th-ranked Franklin & Marshall.

The Mules' three setbacks to open the season are by a total of four goals - two to the Diplomats and one to Dickinson, which sits three spots outside of the top 20. 

Seniors Ethan Grossman and PJ Lombara both recorded hat tricks in Muhlenberg's second game against F&M in three weeks.

The Mules trailed 3-0 less than four minutes into the game but forged a tie by scoring four of the next five goals. After the Diplomats went back ahead, back-to-back goals by Grossman, the last with 13 seconds left in the half, gave Muhlenberg its first lead, at 6-5.

F&M started quickly again in the second half, netting three goals in a span of 28 seconds to go up 8-6. Again the Mules fought back, with freshman Ryan May scoring his first career goal and sophomore Jack Kraemer finding the back of the net to knot the game back up at 8-8.

Muhlenberg trailed 11-8 before Lombara (pictured above) completed his fourth career hat trick with 8:22 to play. Thirty-nine seconds later, Grossman completed his hat trick, bringing the Mules to within one.

The Diplomats scored what proved to be the winner at the 4:09 mark. Junior Matt Marrella netted a man-down goal with 55 ticks left, but F&M won the ensuing faceoff and killed off the remaining time.

Senior Matt Burke won 15 faceoffs, while junior Maxwell Seeber scooped up 6 ground balls and caused 4 turnovers.