The sixth-ranked Denison Big Red will take its 16-1 record into the 2016 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Tournament. This is Denison's 21st NCAA Tournament appearance and its eighth bid since 2005.
On Sunday night, the selection committee announced the bracket for the 2016 NCAA Tournament and Denison will host Carthage College on Wednesday, May 11 at 2 p.m. at Piper Stadium in Granville.
Denison is riding a 15-game winning streak dating back to Feb. 25. The Big Red recently wrapped up the program's 16th North Coast Athletic Conference Championship by rolling through conference play with an 8-0 record. On April 30 in the NCAC Tournament championship, DU rallied from a four-goal deficit in the closing minutes to stun No. 15 Ohio Wesleyan, 12-11 in overtime. The Big Red also has quality wins over Washington and Lee, Nazareth, Dickinson, Montclair State and Sewanee under their belt.
The 2016 NCAC Offensive Player of the Year James Meager leads the team in scoring with 40 goals. He scored the game-tying and game-winning goal in last weekend's victory over Ohio Wesleyan.
Senior All-American Blair Farinholt follows with 30 goals and 22 assists. He recently moved past Eddie Vita '14 and into eighth-place on DU's career scoring list with 111 goals.
The Denison defense, led by the likes of Ben Duhoski, Teddy Sawyer, Liam Burman, John Reinhardt, Josh Happ and Brian Miller, is ranked fifth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 6.12 goals per game. Senior goalie Chris Thomas has started all 17 games. He carries a 6.24 GAA and a .550 save percentage into the playoffs.
Carthage enters the tournament after earning the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin's automatic bid following a 13-8 victory over Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday. This is Carthage's second-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
The winner of the first round matchup between Denison and Carthage will go on to face the winner of Albion-Aurora.
Tickets will be available at the entrance to Piper Stadium on gameday. Prices are $6 for adults, $3 for students and $2 for children ages 3-12. The Denison Sports Network will provide a live video broadcast of Wednesday's first round game. Pregame will begin at 1:50 p.m.
