A little over six years ago, in the spring of 2010, the Pioneer men’s lacrosse team had little to celebrate. Stony Brook had pulled off a 9-7 upset victory over then ninth-ranked Denver in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Despite the loss, I am so happy for the way this team came together this season and for the sacrifices they made to get to this point,” DU Head Coach Bill Tierney said six years ago.
There would be plenty more obstacles in the years following.
In 2011, the Pioneers advanced to championship weekend for the first time in program history, fresh on the heels of a 14-9 shellacking of perennial power-house Johns Hopkins in the quarterfinals. Then the script was flipped in the semifinals, when DU was the recipient of a six-goal beat down, this time at the hands of Virginia. The Cavaliers went on to win the championship.
In 2012, the results weren’t any more favorable. Another eventual champion defeated the Pioneers, this time by a slim 10-9 margin, and this time it was the Loyola Greyhounds . A late Denver rally fell short of the mark, as did another Pioneer season.
In 2013, finally, it looked as though Denver would get to stay for the duration of championship weekend. It wasn’t so. Denver blew a three-goal lead and Syracuse scored with 20 seconds left to seal the Pioneer’s fate. 2013 was not to be the year of the Pioneer either.
Enter the 2014 season. Denver was ranked No. 4 in the preseason polls, and earned the five seed in the tournament. Down 8-4 to the Blue Devils of Duke, the Pioneers did their best impersonation of the ‘13 Syracuse team, but it wasn’t good enough. Their comeback collapsed.
Now it’s 2015, and the reins have been in Tierney’s hands for six years. The Pioneers sprinted past competition in the Big East, with a only a few meaningful non-conference games against quality competition sprinkled throughout February and March.
May 23. Once again, Denver’s legitimacy as an emerging lacrosse power was in doubt—as it had been the year before, and the year before that and the year before that. A Notre Dame Irishman named Sergio Perkovic almost single-handedly dismantled Denver in the semifinal match, scoring at will in the wake of a ferocious comeback in the waning moments of Denver’s semifinal game. Colorado’s own Nick Ossello scored with under 10 seconds to go to force overtime. It was déjà vu.
Having watched the team all year, and despite believing that this was the best lacrosse team DU had ever fielded, it looked as though the Irish would escape with a win in what would be known as just another simmering disappointment, a final heartache atop a large pile of conspicuous setbacks.
Thankfully, this wasn’t so. An 11-10 overtime win over the Irish was followed by a less-exciting 10-5 victory in the final over Maryland. The win solidifies this team’s place in history as the first to bring the National Championship trophy west of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Seniors performed in assertive fashion. Wesley Berg scored 15 times in the tournament. Ryan LaPlante was a stonewall throughout the tournament. Mike Riis came up with a timely goal and some even more crucial takeaways. Garret Holst provided a gritty spark on the defensive end and in the clearing game. Sean Cannizzaro and Erik Adamson facilitated the most formidable offense in the nation.
Those who doubted Tierney, Denver and lacrosse in the west have been silenced.
Six years after ditching the stronghold of the lacrosse elite in Princeton, Tierney’s plan has come to fruition.
“It’s been a long journey,” Berg said after the win on Monday.
It certainly has.
