DU Lacrosse Opens Season Against Ohio State

(above) The journey begins on Sunday afternoon in Jacksonville, FL.
DU vs. Ohio State
Noon MT
TV: NBC Sports Network

The University of Denver men's lacrosse team will open the 2012 season in Florida on Sunday at EverBank Field, home of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars. The Pioneers will take on ECAC-rival Ohio State at Noon MT.

Fans can watch the game live on NBC Sports Network, formerly Versus. Live Stats will be offered along with a live interactive in-game blog through CoverItLive, all through DenverPioneers.com.

7 comments:

Garrett said...

Pios lose a close one, 10-9. This was a tough loss-- the first ever conference loss under Bill Tierney, in the season opener, on national television no less.

Certainly not the way we pictured this season getting underway.

Anonymous said...

Couple things:

1) Lacrosse is kinda tough for me to watch sometimes. Throw, catch, throw, catch, throw, catch, throw, catch....repeat for 2 minutes on the perimeter, with no movement towards the goal. Next, either shoot the ball into the goal, over the end line, or drop the ball, and then the other team proceeds to do the same thing on the other end of the field. As a relative newbie, I'm amazed that college lacrosse doesn't have a shot clock. It's all exciting when the games are in the NCAA tournament. But for this first game of the season, I found myself fast forwarding the DVR'd version, and not feel like I was missing much. Lacrosse experts: please enlighten me, as to how one acquires a taste for the seemingly endless perimeter play. Do any lacrosse leagues have a shot clock, and if so, does it improve the game?

2) The turning point of the game was when DU was up 2 (8-6??). I felt they were finally going to get that 3-goal cushion, and our goalie Faust made a horrendous turnover, throwing the ball to midfield for no apparent reason. Ohio State takes over the game from there.

Bad loss, but I think DU struggled early last season, too, and things turned out great. The young D probably just needs to get a few more games under their belt.

BooneDogg said...

i'm pretty sure major league lacrosse has a shot clock. i also think it would improve the college game

Anonymous said...

MLL is a totally different game though. College is much purer, and is pretty much the pinnacle of the sport as far as quality of competition goes.

There's plenty of rules that the NHL has that I'm fine with college hockey not having.

The perimeter play in lax might seem mundane, but you have to watch away from the ball too, that's what the player with the ball is waiting for- there's a ton of movement, and once you get the right opportunity, a shot has a pretty good chance at being a goal. It's not like hockey where you look for rebounds and deflections, you have to make your own space and chances.

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:03 responding: thanks, I'll check out the movement away from the ball more next time. I think I was a better lacrosse fan in the middle of the NCAA tournament run last year. Going from the middle of hockey season to the first lacrosse game of the season is likely to blame, too--I'm not in mid-season lacrosse spectating form yet.

Anonymous said...

First game ... our defenders looked a bit befuddled, but they are young. And our goaltending was weak, not sure if that's because the defenders were giving the shooters clean looks, or if he just wasn't seeing the ball today. A few really dumb mistakes, a few blown shots, and a few wide-open enemy looks, that's all it takes.

dggoddard said...

Interesting CBS4-Denver video interview with Bill Tierney that I just posted above.

Tierney is now in favor of a shot clock in college lacrosse. He mentioned that if the game is going to succeed on TV they are going to need it.