According to reports, San Diego State has sent a formal letter to the Mountain West citing an interest in exiting the conference. SDSU has until the end of this month to submit a final letter to the Mountain West Conference expressing its intention to exit. The delay in PAC-12 media rights details has the Aztecs asking the Mountain West for an extension due to ‘circumstances beyond their control’ as they are also looking at a $17 million exit fee to move to the PAC-12. Continue reading Could Falling Pac-12 Dominoes Send North Dakota State to Mountain West?
Category Archives: Women’s Sports
Denver Announces New Volleyball Head Coach Megan Pendergast
Denver announced Megan Pendergast as DU’s new head coach for volleyball Monday afternoon after a lengthy search. Pendergast recently completed her third season as a UCLA Bruins’ assistant coach/recruiting coordinator. Prior to that, she coached at Oklahoma and Tulsa. Pendergast played college volleyball as a libero for Texas A&M.
Continue reading Denver Announces New Volleyball Head Coach Megan Pendergast
Denver Volleyball Headed for a Hard Landing
DU’s head volleyball coach Tom Hogan stepped down on April 6th. As of this writing, the open head coaching position has not been filled and all the team assistant coaching positions remain open. While DU is expected to announce a hire this week, Denver has missed the transfer portal window and lost talent in the interim. Starting middle blocker Brianna Green transferred to TCU while setter Lauren Carter left for Northwestern along with setter Emma Ziegler to Creighton. Setter Lorrin Poulter is using her 5th year at Purdue. Maddie Hensen is going to Iowa. Future recruits de-committed as Canadian Olympian Lydia Johnson jumped to Michigan and Sydney Barrett switched to Dayton. Denver is left with no setters, a critical position, on the squad and only one middle, Cadi Boyer. The team has not finalized its non-conference schedule for 2023-24 and play begins in only eleven weeks. Continue reading Denver Volleyball Headed for a Hard Landing
Pioneers’ Dream Run to Championship Weekend Ends In National Semis in Loss to Northwestern
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? We finally got our answer: the unstoppable force wins. In the first NCAA Semifinal matchup of the day between the #5 Denver Pioneers and #1 Northwestern Wildcats, it was Northwestern’s top-ranked scoring offense that dominated Denver’s top-ranked scoring defense. After an encouraging opening quarter, Northwestern found its offensive rhythm and controlled the final 45 minutes of the game en route to the 15-7 Wildcats victory at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina. Not only was it their first loss of the season in their first-ever trip to the national semifinals, but it was also the first time Denver gave up more than nine goals in a game all season. Continue reading Pioneers’ Dream Run to Championship Weekend Ends In National Semis in Loss to Northwestern
Championship Weekend Preview: Denver vs. Northwestern
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? In about 24 hours’ time, we’re going to find out when 5th-seeded Denver’s top-ranked defense (5.82 GAA) meets #1-seeded Northwestern’s top-ranked offense (17.00 GPG) at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina in the first national semifinal. Stopping Northwestern’s deadly attack duo of Izzy Scane and Erin Coykendall – both of whom are Tewaaraton Award finalists – is Denver’s next big test in a season chock full of them. Continue reading Championship Weekend Preview: Denver vs. Northwestern
Denver Completes Second-Half Comeback Against North Carolina to Advance to Championship Weekend
For the first time in program history, the Denver Pioneers are going to Championship Weekend.
Let that sink in for a moment and smile.
Yet again, it was the #5 Denver’s (22-0) defense that won the day. The country’s #1 ranked scoring defense showed up to Dorrance Field in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and dominated the #4 North Carolina Tar Heels’ (16-5) offense. The Pioneers started slow, allowing four goals in the first half while only scoring twice, but they found the extra gear they needed in the second half, outscoring the defending national champions 3-0 over the final 30 minutes and held the uber-talented Tar Heels’ offense scoreless over the final 35-plus minutes of the game to clinch the 5-4 Elite Eight victory and advance to Championship Weekend for the first time ever. Continue reading Denver Completes Second-Half Comeback Against North Carolina to Advance to Championship Weekend
NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Quarterfinals Preview: Denver at North Carolina
“Oh, we’re excited. We’ve been looking forward to this one. We were watching [North Carolina’s] game this morning, hoping Richmond wouldn’t pull it off so that we could play UNC. We want to win a national championship and we want it to look as good as it possibly can. We want to go through UNC.”
That’s what star DU midfielder and all-around speedster Trinity McPherson had to say after her 5th-seeded Denver Pioneers beat the UAlbany Great Danes 8-6 in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament on Mother’s Day at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The low-scoring, defensive victory earned the Pios their second-ever trip to the NCAA Quarterfinal round (their other appearance came in 2019 when they lost to Maryland, the #1 overall seed and eventual national champion). Continue reading NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Quarterfinals Preview: Denver at North Carolina
Pioneers Clinch Second-Ever NCAA Quarterfinals Berth with 8-6 Victory over UAlbany
All season long, the 5th-seeded Denver Pioneers’ (21-0) calling card was defense. Even if the offense wasn’t there on any given day, they knew that they were just as comfortable winning a 5-4 game as they were winning a 23-6 game. That’s the reality for a team that hasn’t given up more than 9 goals in any game this season – as long as the defense shows up, they can and will win. In Friday’s NCAA Tournament, First-Round matchup against the USC Trojans, the Pios’ defense showed up to hold the high-flying, fast-paced Pac-12 champions to seven goals. In their follow-up performance n the Second Round against the UAlbany Great Danes (13-7), a team that scored 13 of its 16 goals in the second half of their first-round matchup against Virginia, DU held the visitors to just six goals as they won 8-6 at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium to advance to the Quarterfinals for the second time in program history. Continue reading Pioneers Clinch Second-Ever NCAA Quarterfinals Berth with 8-6 Victory over UAlbany
Western Illinois Limps Out of the Summit League – What’s Next for DU?
We wrote about the Leathernecks’ possible exit in the past. Located in an inconvenient outpost (Macomb, Illinois) and plagued with declining enrollment, a budget crisis, and plunging athletic success, the Leathernecks announced Friday that they are picking up their bats and balls and headed to the Ohio Valley Conference – populated with ‘similar schools.’ Continue reading Western Illinois Limps Out of the Summit League – What’s Next for DU?
Pioneers Survive Furious Third-Quarter Southern Cal Rally to Advance to Second Round
Nobody ever said it was going to be easy. Even with a 6-0 second-quarter lead in NCAA Tournament play, advancing to the second round was never guaranteed. Against the Pac-12 Champion USC Trojans (16-4) at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium in first-round NCAA Tournament action, the 5th-seeded Denver Pioneers (20-0) had to withstand a valiant five-goal third-quarter rally from the Trojans – which erased their five-goal halftime lead – to win 10-7. It wasn’t exactly how head coach Liza Kelly drew it up but in the first-ever NCAA Tournament game in the Mile High City, the Pioneers showed up and treated a raucous crowd to an instant classic. Continue reading Pioneers Survive Furious Third-Quarter Southern Cal Rally to Advance to Second Round