Head men’s soccer coach Jamie Franks has never veered from his ambition to achieve a national championship. One of his keys is a challenging non-conference schedule. A 2-0 loss to Creighton last week dropped the team to a 2-3 record and likely eliminated the option of an at-large NCAA bid, leaving the Pioneers hanging by a Summit League tournament thread.

Subsequent wins over Cal Poly (2-1) and Mercer (2-1) pulled the Pioneers back over .500 at 4-3. Sophomore forward Keegan Kelly’s final match before leaving for New Zealand’s U20 World Cup team was Sunday against Mercer. A road-trip to Portland and Seattle starting this weekend rounds out DU’s pre-Summit League slate (October nonconference matchups at Georgetown, Pitt, and Virginia still remain). The Pioneers open Summit League play against defending Summit champions UMKC at the end of the month.

DU will have to be playing their very best at the end of the season to make another serious run after last season’s heartbreaking NCAA semifinal loss against eventual champion Vermont. To their credit, Franks and his team have never shied away from taking the difficult path.

In other news, two DU women’s teams were giant killers this past week. DU women’s soccer took down the #25 CSU Rams 2-1 behind a pair of Isabella Chidiac goals, while Denver women’s volleyball defeated SEC member Arkansas in five sets (21-25, 25-17, 25-23, 20-25, 15-10). It was the first time that DU beat an SEC team in 17 years.

Top photo courtesy of Denver Athletics