NCAA Lacrosse Final Four 2011, UVA Vs. Denver: Something Old, Something New

It’s Memorial Day Weekend and if you’re a lacrosse fan, that means it’s your favorite time of year. The NCAA Lacrosse Final Four kicks off Saturday at 4 p.m. EST on ESPN2 as we whittle down the remaining squads to two for Monday’s National Championship. Before Duke and Maryland square off at 6:30 p.m. EST, Virginia and Denver will face-off at 4:00 p.m. EST in a match-up that pits old school vs. new school. Kinda.

It’s easy to look at Denver, label them a Cinderella and start rooting for them to beat a Final Four stalwart like Virginia. It would be unfair, however, to peg Denver as some kind of lucky upstart. The 2011 Denver Pioneers are to the 2011 lacrosse season what the Butler Bulldogs were to the 2010 NCAA basketball season.

Both team had fantastic records. Denver finished the regular season 13-2 with their only losses to coming to the eventual No. 1 seed and the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Both teams spent a good portion of the season in the national rankings. In fact, Denver topped out all the way up at No. 5 in the nation, usually ahead of schools like Virginia, Duke and Johns Hopkins.

Both teams have fantastic coaches. Denver’s Bill Tierney is in his second season with the Pioneers but he’s not newbie. Before heading West in what many considered an early retirement, Tierney coached the Princeton Tigers to six National Titles and nine Final Fours.

In other words, just because this is Denver’s first go at the Final Four, don’t assume they don’t belong there. Or that Virginia has this one in the bag.

That said, the 11-5 Cavaliers are no pushover. But if you’ve been following college lacrosse for the past decade, you already knew that.

Virginia came into the 2011 season a heavy favorite and they’re 4-0 start showed. That’s what made it all the more shocking with they lost four of their final six games.In spite of that, Virginia reestablished themselves in the tournament, shutting down a potent Cornell team in the quarterfinals that many expected to play for the title.

If you’re looking for the match-ups, look no further than the goalies for both teams. SB Nation’s College Crosse says the game might be won or lost depending on who has the better day:

Both Virginia and Denver rely on their goalies to make saves (the Pioneers more than the Cavaliers, though)...Where this becomes an issue for Virginia and Denver is that both teams’ offenses are great at sharing the ball and providing assists. So, while each team is rolling with a defensive strategy that requires their goalies to make stops to end defensive possessions, this may be a problem on Saturday given the fact that a lot of shots are going to be coming from preferred shooting positions. Whichever stopper -- Faus or Ghitelman -- can erase more “should’ve canned it” shots will ultimately put their team in a better position for success.

If nothing else, you’ll want to watch this game to say you remember watching the Pioneers just before they turned into college lacrosse’s next-great powerhouse.

For more on the Denver-Virginia game, check out College Crosse’s preview or check out SB Nation Denver’s coverage of the Pioneers’ run. And head on over there for their live GameThread to join in on the discussion as well as for more coverage of the 2011 NCAA Lacrosse Final Four.