The Denver men’s lacrosse team, ranked 13th in the nation, traveled all the way to Washington, DC, to play the 15th-ranked team Georgetown to open up Big East conference play. 

Denver holds an 8-5 lead in the all-time series and is coached by Bill Tierney, who is in his 14th final season in 2023. Tierney has a record of 161-57 at DU and 433-150 in his 39th season as a college head lacrosse coach.  

In the first half, Denver was able to gain good momentum early through their defense. The last line of defense was junior goaltender Malcolm Kleban (New York, N.Y.) who made a great save at the beginning of the game to give the Crimson and Gold the ability to push their fast-paced offense.  

Denver got on the board first with a goal from sophomore SSDM Casey Wilson (Victoria, B.C) which was good for his third goal of the year. 

A little over a minute later senior attack Richie Connell (Evergreen, Colo.) added to his team-leading assist tallies and distributed the ball to sophomore attack Noah Manning (Victoria, B.C) to give DU a 2-0 lead. 

Georgetown was relentless after Manning’s goal and scored the next seven goals in the contest to give themselves a huge five goal lead going into the final stage of the first half. 

After the run of goals, Denver would not be completely out of the game but eight turnovers committed in the first half did not add any momentum to a comeback. But a goal from junior attack Michael Lampert (Wayland, Mass.) with a little less than four minutes in the first half proved that the DU could itch their way back into the contest. 

With 18 seconds left, junior midfielder Jack Tortolani (Baltimore, Md.) scored a clutch dunk-esque goal to shorten the lead of the Hoyas by only three going into the second half. 

The goaltending in the first half by Kleban kept DU in the game. Kleban made eight saves in the first half, seven of those coming in the first quarter. 

Georgetown found their strong offense again and shut the door on DU for a complete comeback. The Hoyas scored two goals to start the second half and Denver was struggling to keep up. 

Junior midfielder Stephen Avery (Nashville, Tenn.) gave the Crimson and Gold a little more light after scoring his team-leading 18th goal of the season. But Georgetown would respond with two more goals to give them a six-goal lead. 

With 12 seconds left in the third quarter, sophomore midfielder Mic Kelly (Towson, Md.) would score the last goal of the game for Denver but Denver did not stop putting pressure after falling to a five-goal deficit. 

Georgetown would own the fourth quarter and would score two more consolation goals to lift them to a 13-7 victory. 

Denver falls to a 4-4 record on the season and will hope to bounce back in their next contest against Villanova University on Saturday. The team will also celebrate the successful career of Coach Tierney at Peter Barton Stadium on a day the team is calling Bill Tierney Day.