The men’s lacrosse team can breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Sunday night’s 2014 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship Selection Show removed all doubt, as the Pioneers were seeded fifth in the field of 18 and will take on the unranked University of North Carolina Tar Heels this Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
It is a familiar matchup considering recent history.
Saturday signals the third consecutive meeting between DU and UNC in the NCAA tournament.
“I can rattle off their whole team because we know them so well,” said head coach Bill Tierney. “Amazing attack, big strong midfielders, they’re playing great defense now, and [they have] a wonderful young goalie.”
Denver proved to be the victor in both previous games. In the first round of the 2012 tournament, the Pioneers outlasted the Tar Heels 16-14. It was in this game that senior midfielder Jeremy Noble set Denver’s Division I record in individual game points with 10 on three goals and seven assists.
“If you were to tell me before I came here to DU that my last game here would be a playoff game against UNC under the lights, I don’t think you can ask for much more,” Noble said.
Last year’s contest saw the crimson and gold erase a six-goal deficit to win 12-11 in the quarterfinals. Denver would later lose 9-8 to Syracuse in the semifinals.
It will be the Pioneers’ fifth straight tournament appearance. For Tierney, it was a fate that was in question before his team’s Big East Championship. In other words, Denver was no shoo-in.
“Our guys have known in the back of their minds that any one of those losses along the road could have knocked us out of that tournament,” Tierney said.
DU defeated host Villanova last Saturday by a score of 14-7 to win the Big East tournament championship, and ultimately solidified its spot in the tournament, claiming the conference’s automatic qualification bid.
Despite being tied 6-6 at halftime, the Pioneers used a second half surge to squelch the Wildcats’ chance for revenge. The Denver defense held Villanova scoreless for more than a half, while the offense scored eight goals in the final two periods, five of which came in the third quarter.
“We were nervous going into that Rutgers game [and later] going into the Villanova game, because you never know how the numbers work,” Tierney said. “We honestly thought we could have been out had we lost one of those games.”
