Photo by: Michael Furman

The stakes were clear–win or no postseason.

For the men’s lacrosse team beating then-No. 6 ranked Loyola on Sunday afternoon at Invesco Field determined which direction the team is heading.

Denver is now postseason bound for the first time since 2008 after beating Loyola handily 12-4 for at least a share of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) regular season title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The Pioneers (11-4, 6-0 ECAC) can secure the conference crown outright if they take care of in-state rival Air Force this Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colo.

In a year of many firsts, the Pioneers became the first team since Georgetown in 2001 to capture the ECAC championship in their first season.

“It was a huge game that we have been looking forward to all season,” said Dillon Roy. “We had been building up some confidence and some swagger, which helped us a lot. To beat a team like Loyola is an unbelievable win and it confirms that we are a team to be reckoned with.”

Roy is right–the Pioneers should be feared. They are arguably the hottest team in college lacrosse, winners of their last eight games, and now under the guidance of legendary coach Bill Tierney, they have an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

“It’s too unbelievable,” said Tierney. “All the credit goes to the guys in the locker room. They are the ones who had to sacrifice, they are the ones who have changed, and they are the ones who believed.”

The postseason seemed unfathomable for DU after the squad’s embarrassing 14-7 loss to Notre Dame on March 16, which dropped them to 3-4 overall.

However thanks to their remarkable turnaround and their dominating performance over then-conference leading Loyola (9-3, 6-1 ECAC), the Pioneers are playing as good as anybody in the country heading into postseason play.

Against the Greyhounds, the team held every statistical advantage, but the most important ingredient to their success was time.

“Biggest thing that was stressed was having long possessions and not turning the ball over,” said sophomore Mark Matthews. “The coaches really stressed being patient.”

DU jumped ahead in the first quarter and set the mood for the rest of the game. They limited Loyola to just one shot on goal in the quarter, while they attempted 14 shots, scoring on three of them.

Goalie Peter Lowell would be tested later on in the game though, saving 15 shots. Tierney said it was Lowell’s best game of the year.

“This is the closest it gets to playing a complete game,” said sophomore Patrick Rogers, who finished with five points off from three goals and two assists. “The idea was that if we have the ball, they couldn’t score.”

The strategy was smart, but the execution was flawless. The Pioneers limited their opponent’s possession by winning six of the eight face-offs in the first half, while accumulating seven more ground balls then the Greyhounds did.

“Taking advantage early on was huge for us,” said Tierney. “It is really important to get off to a good start, so that way we can be patient on offense. The key to holding the ball though is that you have to score it.”

Too often this season the Pioneers have fallen behind early in games and have been forced to rally.

In their previous two wins against Ohio State and Fairfield, the club had to come from behind to pull out narrow victories.

The trend of starting sluggish can be traced to the very beginning of the season, when the Pioneers started off 1-3 with loses to Jacksonville and the University of Pennsylvania, two of the weaker opponents on their schedule.

But that was more than two months ago. The Pioneers are a different team now.

In what was expected to be a transition season under a new coach, the Denver players have shocked the lacrosse world as well as themselves.

“We didn’t have any expectations going into this season with new coaches and a lot of new players,” said Matthews of the beginning of the season. “It feels really good to win a championship with this team, because this is the best team I have ever played on.”

The Pioneers had 16 freshmen on their roster back in the fall when they began practicing and seemed to be built for the future, however the veterans on the roster have proven that this is the perfect coalition of youth and experience as well as talented.

“What I think everybody’s overlooked is how important this senior group has been,” said Tierney. “We can recruit for the next ten years and not find another Dillon Roy.”

Roy, a long stick defender, has been defined versatility under Tierney’s guidance. The senior has not only adapted well to the new philosophy and system Tierney has installed, but he has flourished in a variety of ways.

Last Sunday, Roy was the player in the face-off circle in the first half when Denver took control of the game before Loyola could even have a chance.

In addition to securing possession, shutting down elite attackmen and scoring goals—Roy scored the 12th goal for the Pioneers on Sunday—the captain has become the team magnet, drawing every member of the team to unite.

“Making the tournament under these circumstances, having a new group of players and new coaches working together in a new system, and generating a win like this is indescribable,” said Roy. “It is something I will never forget.”

It’s unclear at this point whether or not the Pioneers can play better than they did last Sunday, but if they do mimic their performance against Loyola during the NCAA tournament than they can beat anybody.

“The postseason seemed liked an impossibility two and a half hours ago,” Tierney said jokingly “”But winning changes everything and now what we have is a locker room full of confident men who believe they can play with any one right now, which is pretty cool.”

This weekend’s game against Air Force doesn’t have the same prize as last week’s game, but no matter the outcome the Pioneers they will be playing in the NCAA tournament, which begins on May 15.

And when that begins for the Pioneers the stakes will once again be clear. Win, or go home.