ERIE, Pa. – The Albright Lions softball team (25-18) saw their historic season come to an end with a 2-0 loss to the Penn State-Behrend Nittany Lions (28-11) in the ECAC Semifinals on Saturday morning in Erie.

Penn State-Behrend advances to the ECAC Championship to play the winner of Pfeiffer/Neumann at 3 p.m.

The Nittany Lions struck first with a run in the home half of the first as Carson Hauser led off with a single, advanced to second on a groundout and scored on Alayna Derzak's two-out RBI single. Albright had threatened in the top of the first with runners at first and second and two away, but A.J. Nichols fanned Stephanie Pomante to work her way out of the jam. The Lions also had runners reach base in the fourth and sixth innings, but were unable to push across a run against Nichols who helped her own cause with an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 2-0 game.

Freshman Allison Melahn (16-6) was dealt the tough-luck loss for the Lions after allowing two runs on six hits to go along with two walks and two strikeouts in six innings of work. Nichols surrendered two hits while walking two and fanning six over her seven innings to earn the win for Penn State-Behrend.

Senior Jordan Chell and junior Jessica Rodriguez registered hits in the contest for head coach Marguerite DeLucas' squad, while Rodriguez also drew a walk.

Albright put together a program record 13-game winning streak, came one win short of the single season program record for wins (25) and made the MAC Commonwealth Tournament for the first time since 2007. Additionally, the Lions qualified for the ECAC Tournament for the first time in program history. Melahn was named MAC Commonwealth Rookie of the Year and DeLucas received Coach of the Year honors in her first year at the helm, while four others players also received all-conference honors.