Fast-paced action.
That’s what you’ll see from the Utes on Saturday as Utah plays Duke in the first round of the NCAA lacrosse tournament (12:30 p.m. MDT, ESPNU).
“Fast-paced, transition, freestyle. I know that we’re probably a pretty hard offense to scout. We really just rely on being lacrosse players and playing as savvy and fast-paced players. We’re a very athletic team, so I think those are probably our strong points,” senior attacker Tyler Bradbury said.
What to expect when the Utes play Duke Saturday
The Utes will bring their breakneck tempo to Durham, showcasing an offensive style that powered them to 15.31 goals per game — third-most in the NCAA — which will give them a shot to pull the upset over the second-seeded Blue Devils.
“I mean, we feel like we can compete with the top teams in the country and our style of play is hard to prepare for. We’re one of the fastest paced teams in the country, and that’s what we plan to bring on Saturday and see what we can do with it,” coach Andrew McMinn said earlier this week.
Sophomore Ryan Stines, the Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year, leads Utah’s offense with 47 goals and 17 assists, including five goals in the Utes’ win over Jacksonville to claim the ASUN title for the second consecutive year.
Bradbury has 30 goals and 27 assists and Jordan Hyde had 39 goals and seven assists to bolster the Utes’ attack.
Utah allows 10.375 goals per game, 18th-best in Division I, and defensemen Nikko DiPonio and Joey Boylston are both in the top 12 nationally in turnovers caused per game, while goalkeeper Colin Lenskold has been solid in net.
“Defensively, our veterans have just stepped up so much at that end of the field where our efficiency on that end of the ball has been a huge improvement from last season to this season, and we’re a much more complete team at this point than we were at this point last year,” McMinn said.
‘Credit to leadership’
When asked about his player of the year award, Stines deflected praise for his play, instead crediting the team’s leadership, but did say that an award like that was something he dreamed about achieving as a kid.
“It’s just a credit to the leadership. I mean the seniors, Tyler Bradberry, Jordan Hyde, my linemates and my defenders who are pushing transition, who are getting us the ball, our faceoff team that’s really fighting for those possessions for us, it’s just such a cumulative achievement,” Stines said.
Next up on Stines’ childhood dream checklist?
Winning an NCAA tournament game.
Utah’s recent journey in the NCAA
Utah has been steadily building since it became a Division I program in 2019. While there was some carryover from the school’s club team, it was a pretty much blank slate to build a program, and head coach Brian Holman guided the Utes through a challenging transition for three years as an independent program. Utah never posted a winning record under Holman, but was beginning to build a foundation and get the right recruits into place for future success.
When McMinn — who coached at Robert Morris for 10 seasons — took over in 2022, which coincided with Utah joining the ASUN Conference, he lit the fuse on the powder keg that had been building and led the Utes to instant success.
The Utes went 10-4 in their first season in the ASUN, winning the regular-season crown but falling to McMinn’s old team, Robert Morris, in the championship game.
“I remember our first year in the ASUN Conference, we made it to the finals and we lost in overtime. We said, next year we’re not going to let that happen,” Bradbury said.
Utah made sure of that, defeating Air Force 11-9 in the ASUN title game last year and punching its first-ever ticket to the NCAA tournament.
Lessons learned
Though the Utes lost 20-7 to Notre Dame, the lessons they learned last year are valuable as they head into their second NCAA appearance.
“I think the comfortability that we have coming into this year, I mean still being somewhat of a young program, last year being our first experience in the NCAA tournament, and we returned quite a lot from last year. So just that veteran leadership and the presence and the experience that those guys have coming into this year versus last year,” McMinn said.
This season, the turning point was a 12-11 loss to Air Force in March — Utah’s first conference loss in program history — which ended up spurring the Utes on a nine-game win streak, including two wins in the ASUN tournament to close the season.
“It was kind of a reality check for us,” Bradbury said.
“We’ve been undefeated in conference for quite some time now, and I think just having a loss is something that’s going to tell guys like, ‘Hey, we’re not invincible. We need to play hard. We need to work hard. We need to play a full 60 minutes,’” he said. “And that was something that coach harped a lot, was just a full 60 minutes, and I don’t think we had put that together until potentially after that game.”
Saturday’s opponent
The Utes will need to bring their A-game against Duke, which has a 12-5 record and was the runner-up in the ACC tournament. The Blue Devils are led by Brennan O’Neill, Dyson Williams and Josh Zawada, who have combined for 128 goals, while Kenny Brower has caused 18 turnovers on defense and goalkeeper Patrick Jameison is allowing 10.16 goals per game.
“I mean, they got last year’s Tewaaraton winner (O’Neill) so it’s someone we got to stop, just have a pretty loaded skillset, offense and defense,” defenseman Boylston said.
Utah’s game plan is to push the pace early and often.
“As much skill as they have, they got to run with us and see if they can keep up,” Boylston said. “We run at this elevation and we can run forever, so we’ll see if they can keep running with us.”
The fact that Utah is in this position, on the eve of playing one of the most storied programs in college lacrosse, is remarkable for a program that is just six years old at the Division I level.
It began with the seniors that took a chance on a school that’s not known for lacrosse — players like Bradbury, Hyde, midfielder Carson Moyer, attacker MJ McMahon and midfielder Jose Rose.
The opportunity to really build something was attractive to those players, who took ownership over the program.
“I didn’t grow up expecting to be playing college lacrosse at this university, but the opportunity presented itself and that was the part of the vision when I initially decided to come here,” Stines said. “And that’s the vision that all of our commits and current players have. It’s to do something special, to do something for the first time, and that’s an opportunity that most people don’t get in their lifetime, is to really take ownership of something alongside a coaching staff and leadership. So it’s really special.”
As the wins keep piling up for the Utes, the visibility of the program grows, and the talent level that they are getting is rising. An NCAA tournament win over Duke would do even more for Utah’s recruiting, but no matter the result on Saturday, McMinn’s program has arrived.
“There’s kids throughout the country, the East Coast and the Midwest, and of course out West that are looking at us as a top spot to land,” McMinn said.