Denver experienced mixed results this past week with a volleyball sweep, mixed soccer results and a triathlon sweep on Colorado soil.
DU volleyball (8-1) swept (3-0, 3-0) their own Mile High invitational by dismantling Incarnate Word (San Antonio) on Friday and the University of Iowa on Saturday. Saturday featured DU’s second Power 5 conference win of the season (the other being USC on the road), dismissing the visiting Iowans with an ‘L’.
Women’s soccer (5-4) was not so lucky in a pair of Pac-12 tilts, falling to Washington State 2-0 on Thursday and Colorado on Sunday, 3-1. In both home matches, Denver started strong the first 20 minutes but faded the final 40 minutes of both matches. Head Coach Jeff Hooker was disappointed with the results, especially after such lofty expectations for a team loaded with returning talent. Hooker told denverpioneers.com “Our group has to understand that if they want to be as good as they think they are, we have to put a little more work in and have a lot higher level of concentration”.
A late goal by DU’s Lukas Fisher at the 76th minute gave Denver men’s soccer (4-1-1) a big 1-0 road win against Air Force Friday night. Fisher launched a free kick beauty into the upper left corner of the net for the Denver win. In a tight, physical match, there were 19 fouls and four yellow cards.
FISHER OPENS THE SCORING!
Fisher 77' Air Force 0-1 Denver.#PioneerTogether pic.twitter.com/oxURmY1FVq— Denver MSoccer (@DU_MSoccer) September 18, 2021
Denver men’s soccer heads to Spokane, WA for a match against the West Coast Conference’s Gonzaga tonight at 8:00 pm MT.
Denver women’s triathlon participated in their first-ever meet in Colorado this past weekend. Denver triathletes garnered the first five places at the Oktoberfest Sprint Triathlon in Longmont, Colorado.
Homecoming Weekend and the COVID-delayed inauguration of Chancellor Jeremy Haefner is fast approaching, October 4th-9th. You can sign up here.
Look ahead for the LetsGoDU hockey preview which will be released over the next week or two. And, of course, stay tuned for our 17th annual hockey Super-Poll™.
A note about the Triathlon race: DU was the only D1 varsity team competing in that race. All of the other schools (CU, Air Force, Montana St.-Billings, & CSU) are club teams. This is also the first race that the entire team has competed in ever. This is a great confidence booster as the last 3 races of the season are qualifiers and NCAA Nationals in November. Just remember that this still a brand new program and a new team. This team is going to be a lot of fun to follow!
MSU-Billings is actually a varsity team. Although CU Boulder is a club team, they have been the Collegiate Club National Championships 18 times. We would love to see Colorado Mesa, the other in-state varsity team at the race next year! The DU team will be racing next on October 16 in Smith Mountain Lake Virginia.
I did not realize that MSU-Billings was a varsity team. I was going off of the list on the USA Triathlon website. The club teams have their own separate National Championships on a different weekend than that NCAA varsity National Championships.
The way it looks now, this DU women’s soccer team has underperformed and must win the Summit League tourney to make it to the NCAAs this year, as this recent pair of losses have likely cost them their ‘upset’ cushion. I expected better performances at home – but DU only scored once in the two games. For all the hype, Natalie Beckman has only 2 goals in 10 games, and for the Pios to be a national level program this year, she needs to produce more against these better teams…
Volleyball is doing their thing. They win most of the time, and as usual, their season is probably going to come down to winning the SLT in South Dakota for an NCAA bid, which will be no easy feat.
Men’s soccer is looking decent heading into Spokane. They seem to be able to play good defense and they seem to score a bit more easily than last year, but once again it will probably be a one-goal game against Omaha that determines their SLT and NCAA fate, one way or another.