Everybody out east is waiting on the University of Denver women, the nation’s only undefeated lacrosse team left, to falter.
Those naysayers may not want to hold their breath.
Under the direction of 17th-year head coach Liza Kelly, the No. 3 ranked Pios have the highest ranking in school history and tied the program mark for longest win steak at 17 via a 12-5 victory over Marquette in Saturday’s regular-season finale. Now, with their first undefeated regular season cemented, they’re eyeing the program’s first national title as the first Western women’s team to accomplish that feat.
“We work in the dark here,” DU senior All-American defender Sam Thacker said. “Liza has been grinding in the dark, under the radar, building the program from the ground up. No matter where the spotlight is, and regardless of what recognition this program is getting, we’re always putting in the work to be a nationally elite team.
“We do us, and if we play the way we expect, we can beat anybody in the country. That’s been our M.O. We play like an underdog with a chip on our shoulder.”
The Pioneers have work to do to get in position to win a national title, starting with the Big East tournament starting Friday in Connecticut, when DU has a semifinal showdown with Villanova. Winning that game and Sunday’s championship will assure DU of hosting its first-ever regional in the NCAA Tournament, which would give the Pioneers an easier path to the national title.
DU has reached at least the second round of the tournament each of the past four seasons, including a quarterfinals appearance in 2019. This season, there’s been zero room for error in order to secure a hosting spot, which is awarded to the top eight seeds. That’s because DU isn’t a traditional powerhouse in one of the top two conferences, the ACC and Big Ten.
“There’s still an East Coast snobbery towards us,” Liza Kelly said. “Everyone’s just waiting for us to lose one game and say ‘I told you so! I told you they weren’t good!’.. But we’ve got to play who’s on our schedule. And I knew we’d have to be perfect in order to put ourselves in contention to host.”
DU clinched its fourth consecutive Big East regular-season title with the win over Marquette and is vying for its third straight Big East tournament title. DU’s won 27 consecutive regular-season conference games. The Pioneers were 57-8 over the previous four seasons and looked the part of a title contender for much of last season before losing 13-8 to Boston College in the second round.
The nerves that came with success and expectations last year are back but have been funneled into confidence.
“We’ve always wanted to win a national championship, but I think there was always that little bit of doubt in our minds,” sophomore goalie Emelia Bohi said. “Even earlier this year, everyone was stressing a little bit because we’re ranked the highest we’ve ever been ranked, we’ve had the best record we’ve ever had. Sometimes that can make you freak out, and we freaked out last year a little bit. But no one’s freaking out right now. This year, we truly believe we can win one, and everyone has fully bought in that this is our year.”
DU posted five wins over ranked opponents en route to its 17-0 start, including victories over top 5 teams at Maryland (8-7) and Boston College (13-8, neutral site).
It’s the latest evidence that Kelly’s work is paying off. An All-American midfielder at the University of Delaware who also played for the U.S. National Team, Kelly was the head coach for five years at Boston University before taking the DU job in 2007. Since then, she’s proven herself as an effective recruiter of talent on the East Coast, filling the roster with both highly touted players and overlooked prospects. She’s a relationship-oriented leader, one who’s not afraid to joke around with her players on the field and be a mentor off of it, while “coaching them hard” at the same time.
Like Bill Tierney did with the men’s program — using his reputation to brand DU as the “Lacrosse Capital of the West” — Kelly’s also made DU a top western destination. Of the 34 players on DU’s roster, 13 are from Maryland, and the majority of players hail from the East Coast.
But, as Kelly explained, the women’s path to national relevance was “so different from the guys.”
“When I got out here, we already had Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (and now) Pac-12 lacrosse,” she said. “For the guys, Bill gets out here, and it’s the last stop: anybody who wants to play West Coast lacrosse, you’re coming to Denver to play for Bill. But for the women, recruits had this plethora of opportunities out west that are really great schools and competitive programs.”
DU has separated itself, doing so with a combination of a balanced offense and stingy defense.
Senior attack Julia Gilbert leads the team with 44 goals and 51 points, but beyond her, Denver has four other players with 20-plus goals and nine total with 10-plus goals. On the other end, DU ranks first in the country in scoring defense with 5.78 goals allowed per game, the lowest rate in Division I since 2016.
Amid the historic season, DU made a recent move to keep Kelly on campus long-term by signing her to a contract extension that runs through 2028. She believes hanging a crimson championship banner at Peter Barton Stadium, alongside the men’s 2015 banner, is imminent.
“I’ve had a lot of different schools come calling over the years, and nothing has felt like home to me like Denver,” Kelly said. “I’m so proud of what we’ve done here… Because from a culture standpoint I felt when I first got out here there was a little bit of (recruits’) attitude of, ‘We can go for this cool experience in Denver and also play lacrosse.’ And now, we’ve switched that — we’re a premier program with a great education, and it’s in Denver.”
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