BALTIMORE — The University of Denver’s historic NCAA Tournament march ended in upset fashion today as Virginia snapped the Pioneers’12-game winning streak with a 14-8 victory in the Final Four lacrosse semifinals at M&T Bank Stadium.
The seventh-seeded Cavaliers built leads of 5-2 after the first quarter, 9-2 at halftime and 13-4 heading into the fourth quarter to cruise into Monday’s national championship game. Virginia lost in the semifinals in each of the past three years.
“These are special young men,” DU coach Bill Tierney said. “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.”
Virginia (12-5) will attempt to win its fifth NCAA title in what will be an all-Atlantic Coast Conference final. The Cavaliers will face the winner of today’s Duke-Maryland game.
No. 6 Denver, the first school west of the Mississippi River to win an NCAA Tournament game, ends 15-3 after absorbing its first loss since March 12.
The Pioneers simply 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 the majority of the faceoffs and scooping up most of the ground balls.
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 1:25 remaining.
Midfielders Jeremy Noble scored four points, and Eric Law — who replaced Baxter in the fourth quarter — had a team-high five points. Noble, a freshman, had three goals, and Law, a sophomore from Arapahoe High, had three assists.
“We can play with them, we know we can, but today just wasn’t our day,” Noble said. “It happens in lacrosse. We know we’re a good team and we’ll prove it again next year.”
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,” Faus said.
At the other end, the Pioneers were highly ineffective against big and physical long-stick defenders and senior goalie Adam Ghitelman.
DU committed the first two penalties and the Cavs capitalized on both, the latter in the first minute of the second quarter to make it 6-2.
The Pioneers finished the half with five turnovers and Virginia scooped up 17 of the 26 ground balls. DU won just 5-of-13 faceoffs.
Virginia attackmen Steele Stanwick and Chris Bocklet had hat tricks, with Stanwick adding two assists for a game-high five points.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
