Tyler Pace is from British Columbia, left home to attend and play lacrosse for a famous boarding high school in Virginia, and wound up at the University of Denver.
As a junior, he’s one of the three captains for the 13-2 Pioneers, who open defense of their NCAA championship with a first-round game Sunday at 1 p.m. against Towson (Md.) at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
“As good as last year’s team was, I think we are better in a different way,” Pace said this week, referring to the scoring depth and balance on this team. “It’s not the same team. We lost eight seniors that played, so our younger guys had to take on new roles and we’re still young. But we’re energetic and we kind of fly around and do what we can do within the system.”
With 20 goals, 23 assists and 43 points, Pace is the Pioneers’ third-leading scorer, behind two other juniors — attackman Connor Cannizzaro (44-23-67) and midfielder Zach Miller (24-41-65).
“Tyler has taken on a new role with the leadership and the junior captainship,” said DU coach Bill Tierney. “He’s become more of a feeder than shooter because we have other guys who can shoot the ball. But he’s consistent and I think we’ll see him step up this time of year.”
His route to DU was, well, unique. It’s almost as if he semi-split the difference between his hometown of Coquitlam, about 20 miles east of Vancouver, and Virginia.
Coquitlam also is the hometown of Wes Berg, the leading goal-scorer for the 2015 Pioneers title team who will be with the Denver Outlaws this summer.
This shouldn’t be a shock: Growing up, Pace spent part of his year playing hockey.
“I only played for a couple of years,” he said. “I’m not a morning person, so getting up at 4 in the morning to go practice wasn’t my thing. I gave that up pretty early and continued to play soccer and lacrosse.”
Several top players from Coquitlam had attended the all-boys Blue Ridge School in Saint George, Va., and Pace enrolled there as a high school sophomore.
“They gave me the opportunity,” he said. “They said, ‘We’ll help you out getting here, and playing lacrosse, doing what you can do, you can help out our team,’ and I said that’s a great opportunity .”
After his sophomore season, he played in Canada’s national tournament, and drew the attention of DU assistant coach Matt Brown, who is from Burnaby, B.C. Pace heard from Brown via email the next day.
“One thing led to another and I basically committed the next fall, in my junior year,” Brown said. “I was talking to other schools, but Wes Berg is a hometown hero where I’m from and he gave good recommendations. He said, ‘Denver’s the best place, don’t even think of anywhere else.’ So without really thinking of anywhere else, I just said yes to the coaches here.”
He considered staying home for his senior year of high school, but decided to stay at Blue Ridge.
“I just thought I could have more fun with my friends at home, and I was already committed (to DU),” he said. “So it wasn’t that I had that much to lose. I laid out all my options and staying at Blue Ridge was just the best decision for me in the long run. The experiences and the friends I made have benefited me coming here, since I had been away from home.”
Pace and the Pioneers are second-seeded in the national tournament, behind Maryland, and are coming off a 10-9 upset loss to Marquette in the Big East Conference tournament championship game. Their Sunday opponent, Towson, is 15-2 after beating Hobart 18-5 in a play-in game at Towson’s Johnny Unitas Stadium Wednesday.
Towson coach Shawn Nadelen was a Tierney assistant at Princeton from 2002-04, during his long careers in both the indoor (National Lacrosse League) and outdoor (Major League Lacrosse) leagues.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @TFrei
