Photo by: Ryan Lumpkin

The DU men’s lacrosse team came within two wins of a national championship last season, falling 14-8 to Virginia in the NCAA Tournament semifinals as the Cavaliers marched on to win the school’s fifth national title.

Although the team is adamant this is an entirely new season, the loss to Virginia still permeates as motivation for a program that continues to turn head within the lacrosse world, earning the first Final Four berth in school history and entering this season ranked No. 5 in both preseason polls.

“We’re definitely using that loss as motivation; all the guys in the locker room are itching to get back [to the Final Four],” said senior attackman Mark Matthews. “From last year’s team, we’ve grown a lot each and every day. Hopefully, we can build off that loss and move forward towards our goal of making it back there and winning it all.”

Matthews, who was named the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, is a Preseason First-Team All American, following a 2011 season where he led the Pioneers with 70 points on 46 goals and 24 assists.

The Oshawa, Ontario, native isn’t the Pioneers’ only offensive weapon. Fellow senior Alex Demopolous returns as a Preseason Third-Team All American after recording 58 points on 30 goals and 28 assists last season.

In addition to Demopolous and Matthews, the Pioneers boast a trio of talented midfielders in juniors Chase Carraro and Cameron Flint and sophomore Jeremy Noble.

Carraro, a Second-Team All American selection this preseason, was picked to be the ECAC’s preseason specialist of the year after his breakout sophomore season, which included a 58.2 winning percentage in the face-off circle and 100 ground balls.

“The more face-offs we win, the more possessions we have and the better chance we will have to win games, especially earlier in the season,” said Carraro. “I put that burden on my shoulders, because I have to allow the defense time to get comfortable early on.”

Joining Carraro on the wings of the face-off unit are Flint and Noble, who finished 4th and 5th, respectively, in points last season.

Flint has been elected to the ECAC All-League list, while Noble joins Demopolous as a Preseason Third-Team All American.

“Preseason awards don’t mean anything at all,” said Flint. “The only thing that matters is when the season starts and how you perform during that season. Jeremy and I have to pick up the balls and Chase has to win the face-offs.”

Junior Eric Law rounds out Denver’s starting lineup on offense, replacing the graduated Todd Baxter at the attack position.

Law, a transfer from Division III Salisbury, finished 6th on the team in scoring with 32 points on 17 goals and 15 assists.

“The transition from Todd to Eric has been seamless, because Eric brings with him a ton of experience,” said head coach Bill Tierney. “Todd was more of a ball handler and a feeder and was more of an emotional player, whereas Eric is much more calm and cerebral.”

Demopolous and Matthews don’t expect any drop off with Law playing as the third attackman.

“Eric is a very special player,” said Matthews. “Scoring goals is going to be a big factor for us and we have to take the right shots and keep shooting—that’s what is important. Eric has stepped in really well and there haven’t been any noticeable differences.”

Senior midfielder Pat Rogers and freshman midfielder Wes Berg provide additional offensive talent for the Pioneers. Berg was selected as the ECAC’s Preseason Rookie of the Year last week and could see significant playing time from the beginning of the season, according to Tierney.

The Pioneers boast one of the best offensive units in the country, averaging 12.3 goals on 62 percent shooting percentage (430-694). In addition, the team outscored its opponents 224-156 in goals, while dominating on ground balls and face-offs.

“Without a shot clock, it can adversely affect our offense in terms of numbers, which means teams are going to want to hold the ball more against us and make sure we don’t score 15 goals every game,” said Tierney. “There’s no question if every team played us straight up without holding the ball, we could score 15 goals a game, but we’ll see.”

With an offense poised to finish in the top three in the country, it’s hard to believe the team will ever be at a disadvantage offensively; however, the players know that nothing comes guaranteed with the regular season.

“There’s no guarantee out here and we know that,” said Noble. “The offense returns a lot of guys and we have some talented freshmen coming in, so we definitely will be able to go up on teams and put them in an uncomfortable position, but that doesn’t mean we will always have an advantage offensively.”

Defense adjusting

While the offense doesn’t seem to have missed a beat from last spring, the Pioneer defense is comprised of an entirely new unit of players, following the graduation of all six defensive starters.

Coach Tierney admits that replacing the defensive starters has been the hardest process this offseason, making several changes to the defensive lineup in between the fall and the spring.

With a lack of experience and leadership on the defensive end, Tierney looks to sophomore goaltender Jamie Faus to make huge strides in the net as the defense tries to gel early in the season.

“Jamie’s career has been up and down so far; it was up 99 percent last season, which is the good news,” said Tierney. “He didn’t have the best fall, but the best part about Jamie is I don’t have to tell him anything. He’s his own toughest critic and he came back in the spring and he’s done very well, knowing he has more responsibilities this year. He needs to be more vocal and lead a very young defense.”

Junior Kyle Hercher brings experience as a long-stick defender, but besides him there is very little collegiate experience amongst the unit.

Redshirt sophomore Drew Babb returns to the field after spending two seasons as a medical redshirt. In addition, sophomore midfielder Terry Ellis might start despite only playing in one game last year as a freshman.

Tierney believes a trio of freshmen, which includes Berg, Sander Aplet and Sean Cannizzaro, will see significant time at the defensive midfield.

Those won’t be the only freshmen contributing to the Pioneer defense, though. Tierney acknowledged that freshmen Carson Cannon, Nick Gorman and Mike Riis would all have an opportunity to play early on in the season.

“We’re going to have a lot of close games until we find out who we are defensively,” said Tierney. “We need to score a lot of goals and be smart on offense.”

Tierney added that it would take about half a season for the freshmen to fully develop.

“Our defense is young and unproven and untested, but that does not mean they are not talented,” said Faus. “They will be challenged at first, but with time they will come together and gel.”

As a team leader, Faus knows it’s his job for the defense to perform well. The sophomore, who was voted the ECAC’s Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, is coming off a freshman campaign where he finished with a 14-3 record behind a 55.7 save percentage.

“I’ve taken that upon myself to be the team leader back there and establish it as my defense and making sure my guys know the defense inside and out,” said Faus. “It’s a complete role reversal from what I experienced last season, when I was the freshman in front of six seniors, who were all experienced and knew the defense well. I didn’t have to do as much communication and as much direction as I have to do this year. However, it’s a position I’m very comfortable with, because I was a leader in high school and I learned to develop leadership skills at that level.”

The inexperience level of the defense places a burden on the team’s offense and face-off units during the early part of the season, where the Pioneers will be tested early and often.

“The offense will give us more time as a defense to adjust and learn everything,” said Faus.

Playing the best

Tierney, a six-time national champion winner at Princeton, knows the best way to prepare for a postseason run is to play the best competition available.

While Denver doesn’t open the schedule with perennial contender Syracuse as they have in the previous two seasons, the Pioneers will be tested throughout the season, including their regular season opener against Ohio State on Sunday in Jacksonville, Fla., a game that will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network at 12 p.m.

“The first game of the season is a huge conference game against Ohio State, and it only intensifies from there,” said Faus.

The following Saturday, Feb. 25, the Pioneers host the Michigan Wolverines in a game Tierney describes as “an absolute milestone.”

Michigan, an ECAC member in 2012, joins the Division I rankings, advancing from club status.

“From a grand scheme of lacrosse, the history and the future of lacrosse, you have to look at Michigan’s transition from club to a Division I program as a milestone,” said Tierney. “We haven’t had a BCS team add the sport in over 30 years, and that’s absolutely huge.”

From there, the schedule only gets tougher as DU takes on three consecutive ranked clubs in a ten-day period.

On March 10, the team travels to State College, Pa., to take on No. 17 Penn State. The following Sunday, March 18, the Pioneers return to the Midwest when they travel to South Bend, Ind., to continue building a rivalry with No. 9 Notre Dame.

No. 3/4 Cornell awaits Denver two days later in Hempstead, N.Y., where the Pioneers won 14-9 in last year’s national quarterfinals against Johns Hopkins to advance to the Final Four.

“Anybody who questions our schedule doesn’t know lacrosse,” said Tierney. “If you want to be up there [at the top], you’ve got to play up there. We look at Notre Dame, and then two days later at Cornell, with a mindset of, ‘If you’re going to be any good, then you’ve got to play two games in three days.’ If we make the Final Four, it’s very conceivable that we’ll see Cornell or Notre Dame in New England.”

Tierney recalls bringing the possibility of playing Cornell to his team’s attention in the fall and receiving a unanimous vote from the players to make sure the game was put on the schedule.

“There wasn’t a guy on the team that didn’t vote yes,” said Tierney. “That showed me they want to play the best, and they’re not done trying to prove themselves.”

The contest will provide Noble with an opportunity to play against his brother, Jason, for the first time ever.

“Our goal is to make it back to the Final Four and win it all, and those two games are preparing us for that,” said Noble of playing Notre Dame and Cornell. “Playing against my brother will be a really good experience, because he’s one of the best defensive players out there and it’s the first time we’re playing against each other.”

“It’s going to be different, but the way I’m looking at it is he is another player on the field that I’m trying to beat. On the field, he’ll just be another number.”

The Pioneers enter the heart of ECAC play following the Cornell game before concluding the regular season with the Mile High Classic at Sports Authority Field, where they will host No. 2/3 Duke on April 27 at 8 p.m.

Players such as Faus and Flint admit that this season will be different than last year, where the Pioneers were able to surprise teams. They acknowledge that each contest will have a “big-game feel” with the proverbial target being placed on their backs.

“We want to win the national championship; that’s the only goal right now,” said Flint. “Last year, our goal at the beginning of the season was to make the Final Four, so now that we are finally ranked in the top five we know everyone is going to be gunning for us, which won’t make it any easier.”