At first glance, it seems appropriate to break out the corny, age-old adage about how history seems to repeat itself.
The fifth-seeded Denver Pioneers and the North Carolina Tar Heels met for the third time Saturday in as many years, each meeting a high-stakes NCAA tournament showdown.
And each time, the Pioneers have found a way to end the season for the Tar Heels, the most recent of which a 9-5 Pioneer win.
But a more practiced eye will notice the difference. This year’s match was by no means a complete doppelganger of years past.
“They just didn’t want it to be their last game, that’s really the easiest way to put it,” said Denver Coach Bill Tierney. “They just fought and clawed and scratched against a great Carolina team. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t what we thought.”
High-scoring pieces of quality entertainment. That’s what viewers and fans are accustomed to when these teams come together. In 2012, the Pioneers outlasted the Heels, 16-14, and a year ago, the Heels gave up a six-goal lead to concede defeat to the Pioneers yet again, losing 12-11. Both combined for less than 15 goals during the most recent showdown on a drizzly Denver night.
“If you told me we were going to get nine [goals] today, I would have told you it would be our last game,” said Tierney.
Both North Carolina (13.57 goals per game) and Denver (13.44) boasted high-powered offenses coming into the NCAA tournament, ranking third and fourth in Division I, respectively. But defense defined this game.
North Carolina’s heralded attack duo of Jimmy Bitter and Joey Sankey were limited to a combined three goals, and the offense as a whole managed one goal in the first half. The Pioneers will need to continue to be stout with dangerous Drexel looming in the NCAA quarterfinals.
“To believe that we don’t have to outscore a team every time, that’s a huge step for our program,” said Tierney.
“This is the best defensive team I’ve played on, and today was the best defensive performance that I’ve seen while watching Division I lacrosse in the last four years, not just by this team either,” added Denver Captain and midfielder Jeremy Noble, who had a goal and an assist Saturday.
For North Carolina coach Joe Breschi, there are other ways in which Denver team has broken the mold of history, particularly on the offensive end.
“This is probably his [Tierney’s] deepest group,” said Breschi. “They don’t have one guy that can’t break you down.”
Denver’s starting freshman midfielder Tyler Pace (22 goals on the season) left the game in the first quarter with a knee injury. Fellow freshmen Zach Miller and Dallas Bridle proved plenty capable, combining for three goals on the day.
Denver will pass from the realm of familiarity to that of obscurity when preparing for Drexel, which on Sunday defeated Penn (a team that beat the Pioneers during the regular season) for its first-ever NCAA tournament victory. Denver and Drexel have met just twice, with the Dragons claiming a 9-8 victory in the teams’ most recent encounter in 2009.
They have never played during Tierney’s four-year tenure at Denver.
Drexel is riding high after upsetting fourth-seeded Quakers and will have the obvious advantage on faceoffs. The Dragons’ cumulative 61.8 faceoff win percentage going into Sunday ranked fourth in Division I.
Current Denver faceoff specialist Chris Hampton went 7-for-16 against North Carolina. The Pioneers rank 41st in the faceoff department at 47.5 percent and lost All-American faceoff man Chase Carraro to graduation in 2013.
“You get to this point in the year, you know you’re going to play a great team,” said Tierney. “If you get to this point in the year, you really don’t care who you’re playing. As I told the players, my two favorite words during this time of the year are ‘practice Monday.’”
