A split of the home opener games for the men’s hockey team, another shutout victory for the men’s soccer squad and two more conference wins for women’s volleyball.
Here’s what happened last week in University of Denver Athletics.
Men’s Hockey
The No. 2 DU men’s hockey team split their home opening games this past weekend at Magness Arena. They were upset by Augustana on Friday Night in a shootout and bounced back to trounce Air Force in a shutout Saturday night.
In the first home game of the season, the newly formed Division I squad, Augustana Vikings shocked the college hockey world and battled back to ultimately defeat the No. 2 ranked team in the country Friday night.
DU jumped out to a 3-0 lead eight minutes into the contest. Freshman defenseman Boston Buckberger continued his strong start to his season and opened up the scoring for Denver less than two minutes into the first period.
Sophomore forward Rieger Lorenz followed up the first with his first goal of the season after being placed on the first line in the weekend series. His linemate, junior forward Jack Devine, scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season five minutes later.
Augustana scored two more goals to end the first period and neither team could put the puck in the back of the net until the opening segments of the third period. Freshman forward Kieran Cebrian knocked in his second goal of the season to give DU a two-goal lead once again, but the Vikings stormed back and tied the game halfway through the period.
Junior forward Massimo Rizzo gave DU the lead after a top-shelf wrist shot, but again the Vikings would not let the game slip away and tied Denver with 21 seconds left.
Neither team would score in overtime, and a shootout would decide the victor of the contest. DU went 0 for 4 in the shootout, and the upset was complete for the Vikings. DU would need a bounce-back performance against Air Force Saturday night, and the team did just that.
After junior goaltender Matt Davis was revealed to be nursing an injury during Friday’s contest, freshman goaltender Freddie Halyk was called upon to make his first collegiate start against the Falcons. Halyk posted his first career shutout and stopped 24 shots in the contest and was named the first star of the game.
Rizzo continued his high production weekend and scored two goals and recorded four shots on goal. He scored a highlight reel goal in the third period after he skated coast-to-coast, sliced through a Falcons defender and shot while sprawled out in mid-air.
Freshman defenseman Cale Ashcroft scored his first career goal during the second period of Saturday’s contest. Ashcroft got his own rebound below the goal line and snuck a shot off the back pad of the Air Force goaltender.
DU will split locations for their first NCHC conference series this weekend against arch-rival Colorado College. They will play in Magness Arena on Friday night and will go down to Colorado Springs on Saturday.
Men’s Soccer
The men’s soccer clinched their ninth regular season conference title this weekend after defeating Oral Roberts Saturday night. Denver has won 17 of 20 possible trophies since joining the Summit League in 2013.
Redshirt freshman Bryce Willoughby scored the only goal in the contest at the 16-minute mark in the contest. Sophomore midfielder Holger Olsson set up the easy tap-in goal after he trekked down closer to the goal and sent a perfect cross to Willoughby.
Sophomore goalkeeper Isaac Nehme has been lights out for Denver recently and recorded his fifth straight shutout en route to the victory. Nehme now has 20 career shutouts in just two seasons with DU, good for third all-time in program history.
Nehme made seven saves in the contest while Oral Roberts goalkeeper only faced one shot on goal which Willoughby finished in the back of the net.
DU has already clinched the first seed in the conference tournament but one more home regular season contest remains. They will celebrate their seniors and take on Kansas City on Saturday with kickoff starting at 6 p.m.
Women’s Soccer
The women’s soccer goal of winning the Summit League Championship was halted after Omaha outed them in the semifinal matchup Sunday afternoon. A thrilling back-and-forth contest and bitter temperatures highlighted the 3-2 shootout loss for Denver.
Omaha opened up the scoring at the 13-minute mark in the contest. Graduate midfielder Kaitlyn Glover tied the game up 14 minutes later. Glover took a nice feed from graduate forward Camryn MacMillan who assisted on both goals in the contest.
Omaha took an early lead in the second half and finished away their second shot on goal into the back of the net. Omaha had 2 shots on goal during the game compared to Denver’s 10.
It was looking like Omaha was going to win the game until an unlikely hero stepped up for DU to equalize the contest. Junior midfielder Jaydn Goodrich scored her first goal of the season exactly with one minute left in the contest to force the game into overtime. Junior midfielder Riley Baker sent in a cross that MacMillan redirected with a header off of Goodrich’s body and into the back of the net.
Nobody could finish in overtime so the game would be decided in a shootout for the second year in a row, with the same result occurring this season as well. DU scored in the first and fourth rounds of the shootout while Omaha scored in the first, third and fourth rounds to clinch their second straight victory over Denver in the semi-finals matchup.
The NCAA season is not officially over but DU’s season is likely over. The selection show for the NCAA tournament is on Nov. 6 and the top 64 teams make up the tournament field. Denver is currently sitting in the 111th spot of the NCAA RPI rankings.
Women’s Volleyball
The women’s volleyball improved their record to 10-10 this past weekend after picking up two Summit League conference wins. They picked up two five-set wins against St. Thomas on Thursday night and South Dakota on Saturday afternoon.
Denver won the first two sets in Thursday’s contest against St. Thomas before letting the Tommies capture the next two sets. In the fifth and final set, DU edged out St. Thomas by two points to capture their first victory of the weekend.
Graduate middle blocker Cadi Boyer led the way offensively and recorded a season-high .542 hitting percentage in the contest. Boyer also finished with 15 kills and 3 blocks in the contest. Redshirt freshman setter Briley Decker finished with 47 assists in the contest which was tied for the second most she has produced in a game this season.
Saturday afternoon in Hamilton Gymnasium was the location for another five-set win for the Crimson and Gold. DU and South Dakota split the first two sets with DU winning the second set by 12 points. They then split the last two sets before DU battled to capture the tiebreaker set 17-15.
Boyer outdid her performance from Thursday and recorded 16 kills and 10 blocks in the Saturday victory. Senior middle blocker Molly Mirabelli also recorded a double-double in the contest and finished with 11 kills and 11 blocks against the Coyotes.
DU remains tied for the top spot in the Summit League conference standings and will take to the road for two more conference matches this week. They will be at Oral Roberts on Thursday afternoon and at Kansas City on Saturday.
Men’s Golf
The men’s golf squad traveled out of the continental United States and into the state of Hawaii this past weekend to compete in the Ka’anapali Classic Collegiate hosted by the University of Hawaii. The team finished 18th of 20 fielding teams.
Individually, freshman Jet Hernandez stood out for DU. The first-year athlete recorded his lowest round of the season, a 68 in the second round, which lifted him to a tie for 30th place in the tournament. Sophomore Jack Dozer also had a career round in the third round, finishing with a 66 to lift him to a 2-over score on the weekend.
Fall tournament action is complete for the squad and they will return to tournament action in February.
