Denver tops Maryland to win NCAA lacrosse championship
The Denver Pioneers won the NCAA Division I lacrosse championship on Monday afternoon, becoming the westernmost school ever to win the title.
Denver, the fourth seed in the 16-team tournament, defeated Maryland 10–5. Junior attackman Wesley Berg, a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award, college lacrosse's equivalent of the Heisman, scored five goals.
Denver becomes the 10th school to win a Division I lacrosse championship and the first from a state that does not border the Atlantic Ocean. Prior to Denver's victory, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill was the westernmost school to win the tournament.
Maryland entered the game with the nation's top scoring defense and allowed 10 or more goals for only the fifth time this season.
• WATCH: Wesley Berg scores diving behind-the-back circus goal
It was the seventh career championship for head coach Bill Tierney, who won six titles at Princeton from 1992–2001, including three straight from 1996–98.
Denver has qualified for the NCAA tournament in each of Tierney's six seasons at the school and advanced at least as far as the final four in four of those seasons.
- Dan Gartland
