Photo by: Michael Furman
After struggling last season in the Great Western Lacrosse League (GWLL), the men’s lacrosse team looks to find success in its new conference.
The Pioneers are now members of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) and will be competing against new schools such as Loyola and Fairfield. However, DU will still play old conference rivals Ohio State, Air Force, Bellarmine and Quinnipiac which left the GWLL last season as well.
“It’ll be a change of competition and it will in the long run make us a better team,” said senior Dillon Roy about playing new teams this year.
By joining the ECAC, DU become’s a member of the largest conference in the United States. The ECAC has 312 members’ schools spanning across NCAA divisions I, II and III.
Despite playing familiar squads, the Denver schedule is tougher than last seasons. On Friday, the Pioneers will play in their season opener when they travel to Syracuse, N.Y., to play the defending NCAA champions, the Syracuse Orangemen.
“I think certainly the Syracuse game has been foremost on everybody’s mind since we announced it,” said Bill Tierney, head lacrosse coach. “You don’t want to over prepare. Right now we are in the middle of preparing ourselves for our season.”
Syracuse won eight consecutive road games to close out its 2009 season, finishing 10-1 at home on the season and 16-2 overall. The Orangemen are the consensus preseason No. 1 team in the nation. And the team knows what playing Syracuse means.
“It’s just can we mentally go into a place like the Carrier Dome and overcome an opponent that might be perceived as being superior,” Tierney said.
Denver has sixteen games this season and their strength of schedule is No. 20 in the nation. To ensure that this year the team would play some better teams, Tierney said he “just went to the well and called some old friends.”
With three of their last four regular-season games against preseason conference favorites, the Pioneers have a ripe opportunity to cease the conference crown. In order to have that success, DU will need to find confidence early on by competing in tough non-conference road games.
The players who will be key for success in winning these games are: attackers Mark Matthews and Alex Demopoulos, and midfielder Andrew Lay.
“Andrew Lay, who is as good a midfielder as I’ve had in a long, long time. He’s got a Division I All-American body and potential,” Tierney said.
Also key are to the midfield are brothers John Dickenson and Charley Dickenson.
“[They are] talented seniors who’ve been around the block a few times, so they should be the leaders at the midfield,” said Tierney.
For the defensive short stick midfield, which Tierney said is one of the team’s strongest positions there is Alex Drexler, Emerson Eichler, Jamie MacDonald and Deke Jackson. The close defense is working on being just as strong as well.
“We’ve got a really good defense. We have the ability to transition and get up the field,” said Roy. “I think we’re going come on the better end of the score because of that mentality of having those fundamentals and transitioning up to offense.”
The starting long stick middies are Brendan DeBlois and Kyle Hercher. And as far as close defense goes seniors Roy and Nick Gradinger will take up two of those spots. About four other players are fighting for the third close defense spot.
“Dillon and Nick have a lot of experience. They’re both older guys, they’re both leaders so they feel comfortable back there,” Tierney said.
The goalie is senior Peter Lowell, coming back from starting last year. He is being challenged strongly Troy Orzech, Peyton Tyrie and Zander Buteux, according to Tierney.
Despite the talented line up and roster of nearly 50 players, the team will still face challenges in the coming months.
“We feel confident that we have the talent, but putting that all together and finding the chemistry might take a few games,” Tierney said.
As far as what students can expect to see at the home games, the coach only had positive things to say, focusing mostly on how composed the team will look.
“I think they’re going to see their classmates and their friends out on the field giving everything they’ve got to make the DU lacrosse great again,” Tierney said.
