Over this past weekend, DU earned two NCAA Tournament soccer berths, one by the old-fashioned way and the other via a COVID shortened season. Also, Denver women’s swimming won the Summit League in Fargo, North Dakota. First place women’s and men’s lacrosse teams experienced overtime highs and lows on road trips but both remain in first place in the BIG EAST.
Denver women’s soccer (16-2-1, 14-1-1) dominated Omaha 3-0 at Caniglia Field in the Summit League Conference Championship. The tournament MVP, DU’s Kaitlyn Glover, scored the first goal for Denver, Sami Feller netted Denver’s second goal in the first half, and Sydney Sharp capped the perfect afternoon with a third goal for the Pioneers in the second half. Denver’s first-round tournament foe will be announced Monday, April 19th on NCAA.com at 11:00 am MT.
Denver men’s soccer (5-2-0) used a predetermined conference formula which had to be used with the cancellation of the last two Denver-Omaha matched due to COVID-19. As determined before the season, the points-per-match metric became the deciding factor after each of the league’s six teams did not complete their full 10-game slates. This understandably made the Maverick faithful none too happy with their scheduled games against Denver canceled due to COVID this season. The NCAA Selection Show is scheduled to be streamed at 10 am MT Monday, April 19 on NCAA.com.
With the cancellation of Sunday's final regular season match between Omaha and Denver, the Pioneers have claimed their seventh #SummitMSOC title in program history
🗞️: https://t.co/ghM8Tvo5V8#ReachTheSummit pic.twitter.com/qQ14WyWobL
— The Summit League (@TheSummitLeague) April 17, 2021
Men’s lacrosse (9-3, 7-1) suffered their first conference loss of the season – second-ever since joining the BIG EAST – at the hands of the Georgetown Hoyas. It was the Hoyas’ faceoff dominance, 16 out of 24 wins at the X, particularly in the second half and overtime which propelled the Hoyas to the 11-10 overtime victory. The Pioneers never saw the ball on offense in the overtime period. Denver is now tied with the Hoyas with two games left to be played. The Pioneers will play St. John’s in Denver next weekend followed by the to-be-rescheduled rematch with Villanova in Philadelphia. Should Denver win both games, they will finish ahead of Georgetown in the standings, regardless of how the Hoyas’ regular season ends.
DU still controls its own destiny in the BIG EAST. If they beat St. John's and Villanova in their final two games, Denver will win the BIG EAST regular season title. The tiebreakers with Georgetown are head-to-head record (1-1) and then head-to-head goal differential (23-18 DU).
— LetsGoDU (@LetsGoDU) April 17, 2021
Women’s lacrosse was more fortunate on their road trip to Milwaukee. In the first game, Denver (9-1, 7-0) broke open a tied game, 5-5, at half by outscoring Marquette (5-8, 2-5) 11-1 in the second half. Eliza Radochonski led Denver with 4 goals and Kailey Conry had 3 assists. On Sunday, DU’s Hannah Liddy scored the game-winner in double overtime with 25 seconds remaining in the frame for a 12-11 victory. The two wins gave Denver their second consecutive regular-season BIG EAST regular season championship.
LIDDY CALLS GAME!#PioneerTogether pic.twitter.com/Jop0iD1z5x
— Denver Women’s Lacrosse (@DU_WLAX) April 18, 2021
One of Denver’s most decorated athletes, Lynnzee Brown competed Friday at the NCAA Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, Texas. Brown finished in the top ten in three of four events but was not in contention for the All-Around title. She did receive three more All-American honors to round out her illustrious career at 17. Brown will go down as one of DU’s greatest-ever athletes even if she decides to pass an additional graduate year of competition next season.
DU women’s swimming captured the Summit League swimming crown but the men’s team, facing in-season team departures, limped home in third place at the Summit League swimming championships. The depleted men’s side had their worst overall finish in years.
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Eight-straight @thesummitleague Championships for our women's program, and the 10th DI Championship overall.#PioneerTogether pic.twitter.com/pCDcPzgJbT— Denver Swim & Dive (@DU_SwimDive) April 18, 2021
In conference play, Denver women’s tennis (11-3, 4-0) took down Oral Roberts 7-0 Friday at Denver Tennis Park. Denver men’s tennis swept Illinois State on the road to move to 14-3 and 5-0 in conference play.
Denver Triathletes compete next Sunday in Spearfish, S.D. at the Black Hills State University Triathlon Invite. This will be the team’s second event of the season. No other events are scheduled at this time and the question still remains if NCAA Triathlon will hold a season-ending NCAA Championship this spring.
Sad that men’s swimmers quit the team and left their school shorthanded after they apparently didn’t like the way the school handled their suspensions for breaking Covid rules. That’s why coaches, athletic directors and chancellors get paid to make tough decisions.
Everybody on that team knew the Covid rules beforehand. They made a very bad team decision to break those rules.
So what if DU made an example out of them?
So what if other schools do punishment differently?
They should have accepted the punishment they deserved and should have gone back to swim when the punishment ended.