It is Homecoming Week at DU, busy with home games and matches in men’s soccer and volleyball before culminating with the hockey series against Alaska Anchorage on Friday and Saturday. Sign up for Homecoming events at this link.
Denver women’s soccer (9-4-4, 6-1-1) clinched a tie with Oral Roberts for the Summit League regular season title with a 2-1 win over South Dakota in the regular season finale at Pioneer Field. It looked bleak at the 72-minute mark when the Coyotes went up 1-0 on a goal by Morgan Sullivan. DU came storming back ten minutes later, though, when Brooke Ahern leveled the score 1-1. With less than five minutes remaining, Hannah Tate polished off South Dakota and secured the regular-season title. After earning a first-round bye, the Pioneers will travel to Tulsa for next Thursday’s semifinal against the winner of this weekend’s #3 South Dakota vs. #6 Omaha first-round matchup.
Denver men’s soccer (8-7-1, 3-1-0) traveled to Omaha this past Saturday, and two first-half goals by Kyle McGowan were all DU needed to dispatch the Mavericks. Denver keeper Issac Nehme earned the win, and DU moved into first place, tied with UMKC, with two matches remaining. DU faces Oral Roberts at 1:00 pm MT on Saturday, November 1st at Pioneer Field to celebrate Senior Day.
Denver volleyball (13-8, 5-5) is reeling with three straight losses. A road swing through the Dakotas did the Pioneers no favors, falling 3-1 to both South Dakota and South Dakota State. Denver has a chance to steady the ship on Thursday at Hamilton against North Dakota State at 6:00 pm MT and North Dakota on Saturday at 11:00 am MT during homecoming weekend and Senior day.
Denver men’s hockey (3-2-1) made it four in a row against Boston College in a 7-3 trouncing on Friday. It was a different story against Northeastern on Saturday, a 1-0 defeat, as Huskies goaltender Lawton Zacher secured a hard-earned shutout, facing 35 shots from the Pioneers. Still, DU’s freshman goaltender Quentin Miller is proving to be a valuable backstop for Denver hockey this season.
Probably not the right thread to comment on but most recent.
Drove through campus area twice on Saturday evening, around 7 through Evans and University and had dinner at Illegal Pete’s, then came back through around 10pm. The campus and retail areas seemed absolutely dead for a nice autumn Saturday evening with school in session. What gives? Is this post-covid thing? It was seriously depressing and we’ve been in the campus area periodically recently and same thing but I always chalked that up to the time of day (Sunday mornings etc). Campus is beautiful but it seems ghostly levels of quiet, almost like something is wrong. Am I off base here? Do kids just not go out like they did 10-15 years ago? Was it finals week or something?
I have noticed as well. It is probably a number of reasons. Eating at restaurants has gotten very expensive, especially for students. A lot of entertainment is done now in dorm rooms and apartments with gaming, YouTube, internet and Netflix. This is also a generation that uses Door Dash when ordering from restaurants and they have more food options at the DU student commons.
There was a lot of student participation in the recent Crimson Classic run around campus (it was free). So, if the cost is low or free, it looks like students will participate.
Just my thoughts…
We both graduated from DU in 2012 and live in the area. Seems totally dead. Where do these kids hang out? Doesn’t look to be the bar or lower key places like Snarfs or Illegal Pete’s, and doesnt seem to be out in the visible parts of campus. This phone-driven post-covid college scene looks boring.
Hey folks —
I see that DU has a development application into the City for some improvements to the lacrosse field. Here is a link and a summary.
https://aca-prod.accela.com/DENVER/Cap/GlobalSearchResults.aspx?QueryText=2025-CONCEPT-0000200
The University of Denver Barton Lacrosse and Ritchie Center Expansion project is comprised of work around the Barton Lacrosse Stadium and a small addition on the west elevation of the Ritchie Center. All elements of the project will be completed on land and facilities owned by the University of Denver.
At the Barton Lacrosse Stadium, the scope of work includes replacement of the lacrosse netting at east and west ends of the field, additional fan seating at the east end of the field, enhanced fan seating in the stands, a scorer’s table pad, and a renovation and expansion of the existing Press Box. The press box expansion will include perches for broadcast cameras and shade structures on the upper concourse. The seating at the east end of the field and scorer’s table pad will result in additional impervious surfaces. The press box renovation and expansion is entirely within the existing stadium structure footprint and will result in no new impervious surfaces.
The Ritchie Center Expansion is a 15,000 gross square foot, two story addition at the northwest corner of the existing Ritchie Center adjacent to the Hamilton Gym. The addition will provide space for a Sports Medicine Suite, offices for coaches, and a premium club space for athletics patrons. A large exterior patio will overlook the lacrosse field.
We already reported about the lacrosse stadium upgrades. We have known about a new club area along the Ritchie Center but it was pending University funding. We would anticipate that such a project would also potentially impact Hamilton Gym as well with potential club suites and upgrades on the west side of the building.