The game marks the first time that a postseason game has been played west of the Mississippi River as the Pioneers play host to the Wildcats in the teams first-ever clash.

In addition, it’s Villanova’s first-ever at-large bid into the 16-team tournament, while Denver looks to earn its first win in postseason history as they are 0-3 all-time in NCAA tournament play.

Furthermore, even for Tierney, a six-time national champion head coach with over two dozen years of experience under his belt, the game is smothered in the unfamiliar as he will play a Villanova program that he has yet to face.

Although he admits that the unfamiliar is good, Tierney acknowledges that it doesn’t matter to either team.

“I don’t think the Villanova kids are going to care where this game is being played,” said Tierney. “And we’re just looking forward to the challenge of playing a team unlike any we’ve played, and a team we haven’t seen before.”

According to Tierney, Villanova plays a different style from pretty much every other team on DU’s regular seasons schedule.

“If I had to equate it to anything, its like Indiana basketball,” said Tierney. “They are constantly picking and go through lots of motion on offense, which could mean a lot of head aches for our guys.”

The Wildcats use around a dozen offensive players in their attack, but the Denver defense isn’t the unit with the most concern going into tomorrow’s game.

If Denver advances to the NCAA Quarterfinals, where a John Hopkins awaits, then they will have to do it without captain Todd Baxter.

The senior attackman is the second-leading goal scorer and third-leading point producer, but will be sidelined after suffering a high right ankle sprain as well as a partially torn knee ligament last Saturday in the Pioneers 11-9 victory over Fairfield.

As predicted by Tierney last Sunday, Baxter’s replacement is going to be sophomore transfer Eric Law, who has been practicing the attack unit after playing midfield all season.

“The week’s been a lot different, lots of transitioning and learning,” said Law on Friday afternoon. “I saw some rust earlier in the week, but they asked me to play midfield earlier in the season and of course I’m go to play any position if it’s best for the team, and if that means that I have to play attack, then I’m going to do that.”

The “rust” that Law refers to stems from last season, where he played attack at Salisbury University at the Division III level as the team advanced to the national championship, losing 9-6 to Tufts.

Before his back-to-back collegiate postseasons, Law was named Colorado’s High School Player of the year, where he starred at Arapahoe High School.

As for the magnitude of the game, Law says that he is paying more attention to filling the void left by Baxter, rather than focusing on the historical implications the game holds.

“My goal is to go out there and play as hard as Todd Baxter does, with as much heat and passion,” said Law. “I was thinking a little about [what the game means] the other day, because for us local boys [from Colorado], we never expected the NCAAs to come out here. It’s a big moment to show Colorado lacrosse can play with the rest of the country.”

While Denver makes the adjustment with Law at attack, Villanova will aim to slow down DU’s dominant midfield unit spearheaded by sophomore faceoff specialist Chase Carraro.

Carraro won 16 of 22 faceoffs last weekend and has climbed into the top ten nationally in faceoff percentages.

The Wildcats will employ two faceoff specialists of their own—Thomas Croonquist and Nolan Vihlen—in attempt to stop Carraro from giving the DU offense any extra possessions.

“Gaining extra possessions is one of the ways we’ve gotten here, so we’ve got to keep that going,” saidCarraro. “It’s even more important to get streaks going, where we win a bunch of faceoffs, because that’s where we can build leads. If we can get a few extra goals and possessions from the faceoffs, then we will be pretty good.”

As for the matchup Carraro says that the fact the Wildcats plan to rotate their faceoff guy gives him an advantage as well as confidence.

“Being on the field as much as I am will definitely be an advantage, because it’s difficult for either of their guys to get into a rhythm,” said Carraro. “They rotate which tells me that they don’t have one solid guy.”

In addition to Carraro, the Wildcats will put their best long-stick midfielder, Brian Karalunas, on DU’s Cam Flint.

“[Karalunas] is definitely one of the better long stick guys I’ve seen this year,” said Mark Matthews, the team’s leading scorer.

In addition to all those factors, the Pioneers will be most unfamiliar on the defensive end where the Denver short-stick midfielders are planning for a barrage of rotating players as the Wildcats use more than a dozen offensive players.

“They have a lot of guys who play by-committee,” said senior Jamie Macdonald, a short-stick midfielder. “We have to stick to our game plan, we have to be sharp off the ball, because their offense is different from any other that we’ve played.”

Denver’s unsung group for most of the season have been their defensive midfielders led by a trio of seniors—Macdonald, Emerson Eichler and Alex Drexler.

“Those guys are amazing at the top of the defense, they’re just so fundamentally sound,” said freshman goalie Jamie Faus. “We don’t even worry too much about the other team’s midfielders because those guys are so poised.”

While most of Sunday’s game will be based off how quickly each team familiarizes itself with the unfamiliar, the Pioneers can find solace in a senior group that has experienced a rollercoaster worth of ups-and-downs since coming to DU four years ago.

In 2008, DU lost in the first round of the NCAA’s under head coach Jamie Munro, then last year the program got back to the postseason only to fall short to Stony Brook on the road.

“It’s hard to put into words how much the team has changed in terms of culture and team dynamic,” said Macdonald. “We’ve all bought into what coach Tierney says and asks, we’ve all became more accountable and all of that has helped us evolve as a team.”

With a new chapter about to be written into the sports history, Denver and Villanova each face the challenge of adapting—the team to change and familiarize itself the fastest will hold a distinct advantage.