BALTIMORE — As is his custom, University of Denver men’s lacrosse coach Bill Tierney began his postgame news conference with a prayer Saturday. He then asked that his team not be judged by how the Pioneers played in the NCAA Final Four semifinals, but by how historically relevant they became before losing to Virginia 14-8 at M&T Bank Stadium.
“These are special young men,” Tierney said of his players, who became the first team west of the Mississippi River to advance to the national semifinals. “They had a season nobody could believe, even when we got here. The doubters were out there and, unfortunately, the way we played today, some will be still out there tomorrow.
“But you can’t (judge us) on one game. You have to congratulate the University of Virginia and the way they played today. They were fantastic. . . . It was a tough, tough day for us, and you have to credit Virginia for that.”
Officially, this was the tournament’s sixth consecutive upset. But sixth-seeded DU, which had its program-record 12-game winning streak snapped, was outclassed by the No. 7 Cavaliers for the first three quarters. Virginia built leads of 5-2 after the first quarter, 9-2 at halftime and 13-4 heading into the fourth quarter to cruise to Monday’s national championship game, ending a streak of three consecutive losses in the semifinals.
DU failed to score for a stretch of 21:08, including the entire second quarter.
“We can play with them, we know we can, but today just wasn’t our day,” said DU freshman midfielder Jeremy Noble, who had a team-high three goals. “We know we’re a good team, and we’ll prove it again next year.”
Virginia (12-5), which got hat tricks from attackmen Steele Stanwick, Mark Cockerton and Chris Bocklet, will attempt to win its fifth NCAA title in an all-ACC final against unseeded Maryland (13-4). The Terps toppled defending champion Duke 9-4 in the nightcap.
“We played a great game,” Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. “All the credit to Denver and Bill and the season they had. Denver being here means as much to our sport as almost anything that’s happened the past 15 years.”
The Pioneers didn’t perform on lacrosse’s biggest stage. Attackmen Mark Matthews, Alex Demopoulos and Todd Baxter were held scoreless in the first half, and Virginia dominated time of possession by winning faceoffs and scooping up groundballs.
Matthews produced his team-leading 46th goal 33 seconds into the second half, but that was all DU’s top three scorers could muster until Demopoulos struck with 1:26 remaining.
“We just couldn’t get anything going,” Matthews said.
Noble was DU’s top midfielder, and sophomore Eric Law, who replaced Baxter in the fourth quarter, finished with a team-high five points (three assists).
DU struggled from the get-go, trailing 2-0 less than five minutes into the game. Freshman goalie Jamie Faus stopped Virginia’s first two shots but just one of the ensuing six.
“It wasn’t my day,” said Faus, who made eight saves.
At the other end, the Pioneers were highly ineffective against Virginia’s big and physical long-stick defenders and senior goalie Adam Ghitelman (10 saves).
At halftime, DU was just 5-of-13 on faceoffs and committed five turnovers, while Virginia scooped up 17-of-26 groundballs.
The Pioneers, who outscored the Cavaliers 4-1 in the fourth quarter, began the NCAA Tournament with a 13-10 victory over Villanova in the first tourney game outside the Eastern or Central time zones. Last weekend, they upset Johns Hopkins 14-9 in Hempstead, N.Y., in a victory reminiscent of Virginia’s dominance Saturday.
“Our game against Hopkins, we played very well. Everything was going our way,” DU senior midfielder Andrew Lay said. “Today was unfortunate. We didn’t play to our ability.”
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
The little things
The Cavaliers beat the Pioneers on stat sheet:
Total shots
Virginia: 32
Denver: 26
Faceoffs won
Virginia: 13
Denver: 11
Groundballs
Virginia: 27
Denver: 19
Turnovers
Virginia: 10
Denver: 12
