Denver’s early experiences illustrate themes that could well surface again as the season continues. The Pioneers were not at full strength over the weekend because of contact tracing measures, but they were still able to field most of a team. That unsurprisingly suggests lacrosse will navigate the season more like football than basketball, a sport in which one positive test usually leads to a team-wide pause.
Nonetheless, navigating the next few months will require plenty of discipline and assistance.
“It can be done with a lot of care and a lot of help from all the people around you,” Tierney said. “As much as we’re disappointed, and we couldn’t be any more disappointed, we are also encouraged that people care enough to make it work for our team to get from here to North Carolina and back over the course of four days and play two games against really good lacrosse teams and to find out who we are and where we are and give us a launching pad to where we want to be.”
Denver largely played well in a 12-10 loss at Duke, bolting to an early lead before the Blue Devils rallied in the second half. The Pioneers did not fare well with a short turnaround, absorbing a 24-13 setback at North Carolina that saw them trail 23-6 early in the fourth quarter.
Now comes another demand unlikely to arise outside a pandemic. When Denver welcomes Air Force on Saturday, it will be the Pioneers’ fourth consecutive opponent making its season debut and the third with the benefit of having scouted Tierney’s team in advance.
“It’s not an excuse. It just makes the awkwardness of the COVID situation even more awkward when you desperately want to help your team,” Tierney said. “One of the things I think we do very well here is prepare our team, and it’s very difficult to prepare your team without seeing the other team. Then to prepare your team for the buzzsaw we ran into [Sunday] was obviously not a good decision on my part.”