GRANVILLE, Ohio—The 2021 NCAA Division III Championship bracket has been revealed and Denison will face Centre College on Saturday, May 15 in Danville, Kentucky. 

Fifteenth-ranked Denison is making its 25th appearance in the NCAA Tournament after Saturday's 12-10 victory over Kenyon in the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship. Denison brings an 8-1 record into this year's tournament. Centre is 11-1 and winners of the Southern Athletic Association championship after an 11-4 win over Rhodes. 

Denison is led offensively by sophomore attackman Ethan Tyack who checks in with a team-high 43 points (23g, 20a). The Big Red's top goal scorer is Sam Asman (25) and Camden Bowdy is the team leader in assists with 21.  Denison is averaging 21.6 goals per game and is outscoring its opponents 194-57.

The defense is led by close defenseman Joey Rochte who leads the squad with 11 caused turnovers in nine starts.  Junior goalie TJ Spahn sports a .560 save percentage and a 7-0 record in goal for the Big Red.

Steven Villacorta is among the nation's leaders in face-off percentage at .753 (113-150).

This will be Denison's 45th NCAA Tournament game since the program's first appearance in 1982. This will be the second meeting in the NCAA postseason between Denison and Centre. The two teams met in the first round in 2014 with Denison coming away with a 19-4 victory.

There will be a familiar face on the opposing sideline as the Colonels are led by former Denison assistant coach Grant Zimmerman who is in his third season as the head coach at Centre.  Zimmerman served on Mike Caravana's staff from 2016-18, helping the Big Red reach the NCAA Semifinals in 2017.

A start time for Saturday's first round contest will be determined in the coming days.  The winner of the Denison-Centre contest will advance to the second round on Sunday, May 16 and will face the winner of the Colorado College-Transylvania matchup at Centre.

Notables

• Denison is tied for first in the nation in scoring offense at 21.56 goals per game. It's 15.22 scoring margin ranks third.
• The Big Red also leads Division III in face-off winning percentage (.769) out of 231 ranked teams.  Senior face-off specialist Steven Villacorta is sixth in D-III with a .753 winning percentage.
• Junior goalie TJ Spahn is ranked seventh nationally with a 6.17 goals-against average. He is 7-0 since taking over as the Big Red's starting goalie.
• Denison hasn't lost it's opening game of the NCAA Tournament since a 10-7 loss at Cabrini in 2010. Since the NCAA Tournament expanded its field beyond the original eight-team bracket in 1998, Denison is 11-5 in opening round games in the NCAA Championship.
• This is head coach Mike Caravana's 28^th season leading the Big Red men's lacrosse team. He ranks ninth among all active lacrosse coaches with a .767 winning percentage. In Division III, Caravana ranks 10^th in wins and seventh in winning percentage. He is one of just 21 coaches in the history of college lacrosse to reach the 300 career win milestone. 
• As mentioned, Centre head coach Grant Zimmerman spent three years as an assistant coach at Denison from 20016-18. In those three years the Big Red went 52-8 with three conference championships and three trips to the NCAA Tournament, highlighted by a NCAA Quarterfinal appearance in 2016, an NCAA Semifinal appearance in 2017 and a third-round appearance in 2018. With Zimmerman on staff Denison was 6-3 in the NCAA postseason.