Photo by: Adam Hammerman
After the graduation of attackman Todd Baxter last year, there were big shoes to fill on the Pioneer men’s lacrosse team. Junior attackman Eric Law, who transferred to Denver from Division III Salisbury University in Maryland, stepped up to take his spot on the field between senior attackmen Alex Demopoulos and Mark Matthews, a pair of pre-season All-Americans.
Law, who is a Colorado native and has two older brothers, Jared, 27, and Kevin, 23, who both still play lacrosse in men’s leagues in Baltimore and California, has grown up playing a game of following in his role models’ footsteps.
Because of his brothers, Law began playing lacrosse younger than most people.
“I started playing when I was in kindergarten, and I was the littlest kid out there by far. I was playing with a bunch of second graders and third graders,” said Law. “I played up with one of my older brothers, and I just grew up with the sport watching my brothers play and then I played all throughout my life. I just love it.”
Baxter left Denver ranked 6th all-time in DU’s Division I career record books, with 47 games started, and was a crucial attackman for the Pioneers last season, helping them to the NCAA tournament. Baxter suffered knee and ankle injuries in the ECAC championship game, which allowed Law to take the field between Matthews and Demopoulos. Baxter tallied 49 points off 31 goals and 18 assists while playing between Matthews and Demopoulos in 2011. Baxter left a huge void in the Pioneer offense when he graduated last year, but Law stepped up last spring.
Law was essential in last year’s NCAA tournament, as he tallied eight points for the Pioneers off four goals and four assists. Two of his goals and three of his assists were put up in the final game of the season in the semi-final loss to Virginia.
“Eric has been incredible in replacing Todd Baxter. Those are tough shoes to fill because Todd playing with Alex Demopoulos and Mark Matthews, did everything that needed to be done that those two weren’t concentrating on because they were scoring all the goals and getting all of the assists,” said head coach Bill Tierney in a recent press conference.
Law has had several crucial games, racking up four assists in the Air Force game and goals in others.
“He rides, he’s kind of our quarterback, he’s had just a fantastic season so far and we’re expecting more,” said Tierney.
Despite his smaller size – Law stands at 5’10” and 170 pounds, much smaller than Matthews and Demopoulos, who are 6’4″ and 210 pounds and 5’10” and 190 pounds, respectively – Law is currently the second-best scorer on the team, with 28 points off 15 goals and 13 assists, following only Matthews, who has 37 points, and leading Demopoulos by two points.
Law’s stature has not affected his performance as he came out in the DU Face-Off Classic and netted nine goals for the Pioneers, boasting 11 goals and an assist after the first three games for Denver.
After graduating from Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo., Law began his collegiate lacrosse career at Salisbury University before transferring to Denver.
Baxter and Law’s collegiate careers are mirrors of each other, as both transferred to Denver after their first years and became key members of the Pioneer team. While playing between Matthews and Demopoulos, Law has taken on many aspects of Baxter’s old role.
“It makes my job really easy playing next to Mark and Mops [Demopoulos],” said Law. “Coming in filling Todd’s role was tough because he was such a leader out there – he was such a role model for all the younger guys and a catalyst. I’m filling in his role of being the communicator and being the guy that goes and picks up the ground balls, but it’s been great. Mark and Mops have been really good to play with.”
While at Salisbury his freshman season, Law broke his collarbone in the last minute of the third game of the season and was out for almost the remainder of the season.
“When I broke my collarbone, I was out for 10 weeks. The doctor debated doing surgery on it, but decided to let it heal naturally. It ended up taking longer than they expected, and after the whole thing the doctor said I should have done surgery,” said Law. “I started playing again with one game left before the tournament, and it was against our big rival, Washington College. It was exciting to get back to play against them and be able to play right before the playoffs started.”
After the rocky start at Salisbury, Law said he was ready to come back to his home state.
“I chose to transfer back to DU to be closer to home and to see my family more, as well as the opportunity to play in front of a hometown crowd and to have family be able to come to games,” said Law. “I thought it was a great opportunity to help Denver be known nationally as a great lacrosse program and state, and be one of the few to be from Colorado and playing at the highest level. Playing for the best coach and coaching staff was also very appealing.”
Despite transferring back to his home state, the transition period was still there, according to Law.
“At the start, it was very different coming into a new system but being older than the freshmen and stuff like that. It’s been great, I’ve loved it and everyone has been really welcoming; the coaches have been very welcoming,” said Law. “Last year was a little bit of a transition for me, but I’m excited for this year just being in there and coming back to what I’m used to, it’ll be nice.”
Law came to Denver with national title experience from Salisbury University and is able to use his postseason experience to help the Pioneer team handle big games.
“[The National title experience is] just experiencing playing in big games with a big crowd and just learning how to play in an atmosphere that is almost bigger than a normal game,” said Law. “It’s fun coming in here and helping the other guys figure out it’s just a normal game, it’s the same game we’ve always played growing up, it’s just for a little bit more of a title, a little bit more to the game than just a normal game.”
Between Law’s skills and his national title experience, Tierney is hopeful he can help lead the Pioneers deep into the postseason.
“We’ve only played nine games now; if we do what we’re supposed to do we should have another 10 or 12 games,” said Tierney. “We think Eric is a guy that with his attitude, with his work ethic and with his skill level, we’d like to incorporate him more into the game because teams are shutting Mark off a lot now, so we need the other guys to step up.”
