Among the 16 teams competing in the NCAA Tournament men’s lacrosse field, the University of Denver is alone in one respect. The Pioneers are making their national tournament debut.
“When I got this job in the summer of 1998, our goal was to make DU a national power,” said DU coach Jamie Munro, named Thursday as coach of the year in the Great Western Lacrosse League. “Obviously we knew it would take some time. We wanted to get ranked, and then we wanted to win our conference. We’ve done those things, and now we’re trying to compete for a national championship.”
Denver (12-4), which received one of six automatic bids by winning the GWLL, opens tournament play Saturday at No. 2-seeded Maryland. The Terrapins (10-4) got an at-large bid after losing to No. 1 Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title game.
“We match up well with them,” Munro said. “We just go after people. Not a lot of teams do that in lacrosse.”
Saturday’s winner will play the winner of the match between Princeton and Maryland-Baltimore County on May 21 at Towson (Md.) University.
DU senior Geoff Snider, the GWLL player of the year, said Saturday’s game is a “huge opportunity” to deliver the message that elite NCAA lacrosse is played in the West.
A victory, he said, would be “great for DU, lacrosse in Colorado and lacrosse in the United States.”
DU had three other GWLL first-team selections Thursday: Adam Goodwin, David Hahn and Rory Shepard. Ryan Zordani was named to the second team.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
