Their 10-9 upset loss to Marquette in the Big East Conference tournament championship Saturday didn’t change the fundamental reality for the Denver Pioneers. To repeat as NCAA lacrosse champions, the Pioneers will have to win four games over three weekends.
When the field for the national tournament was announced Sunday night on ESPNU, it also seemed that the loss didn’t cost the Pioneers (13-2) anything significant.
They are the No. 2 overall seed in the field, behind only Maryland, and will open their title defense Sunday at 1 p.m. at home at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium against the winner of Wednesday’s play-in game matching Hobart (of Geneva, N.Y.) and Towson (Md.).
Southern Conference champion Air Force (15-2) also made the field and will be at third-seeded Notre Dame on Saturday in the first round.
Marquette is the No. 6 seed and will face North Carolina.
“It looks like we helped Marquette get a home game, which we’re excited about,” said DU coach Bill Tierney. “You go from enemy to ally very quickly.”
Tierney said he was “stunned” that the selection committee, which takes geography and travel in mind whenever possible, didn’t end up matching up Air Force and DU.
“If you had told me we weren’t going to play Air Force, I would have said we’re probably going to be third or fourth (seeded),” he said. “But the way, it worked out, as I said to the team, we’re just thrilled with being able to play another game at Peter Barton.”
Said midfielder Tyler Pace, the Pioneers’ co-captain: “We’re excited. We didn’t know what we were going to have with the loss (Saturday). I think because of our out-of-conference schedule at the beginning of the year, we gave ourself a chance to have a high seed.”
Hobart (10-6) upset St. Joseph’s 11-7 in the Northeast Conference championship game and is coached by Greg Raymond. Towson (14-2), the Colonial Athletic Association champion, is coached by Shawn Nadelen. The twist there is that both coaches are Johns Hopkins graduates and were assistants under Tierney at Princeton, Nadelen from 2002-05 and Raymond from 2006-08.
“Great guys, similar mind-sets, defensive mind-sets,” Tierney said. “Tough, tough teams and tough guys. They’re going to have an exciting matchup (Wednesday). … There’s going to be a lot of family, DNA mingling going on this week.”
At the Pioneers’ watch party at the Ritchie Center, their mood was strikingly restrained. There were no cheers when it first was revealed they were the No. 2 seed, and no reaction when the bracket showed their opponent would be the Towson-Hobart winner. Clearly, the Saturday loss was a wake-up call.
“It was palpable,” Tierney said. “It wasn’t giddy like it could have been.”
Said Pace: “I think it was because of what happened (Saturday). I think the guys still are a little bit stunned. We’re not really an emotional team. When we score goals, we don’t celebrate. When we make big stops, we don’t really get all excited about it. We just go about our business. This is just another business trip kind of thing.”
Co-captain Jack Bobzien, an attackman from Arapahoe High School, said the loss definitely was a wake-up call.
“We want to get on the field and play our best game,” he said. “We want another shot at it.”
The No. 2 seed was the highest ever for the Pioneers, and they won the national title a year ago as a No. 4.
This will be the fourth consecutive year they’ve had a first-round home game, and the fifth time overall, before the tournament switches to neutral sites from the quarterfinals on.
If the Pioneers advance, they will play the Loyola (Md.)-Duke winner in a May 22 quarterfinal doubleheader at Columbus, Ohio, and the Final Four is at Philadelphia on May 28 and 30.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @TFrei
