Chapin Speidel ’14 and his Denison lacrosse classmates came into their senior season with a three-year record of 39-9. They were talented and experienced and used to winning, and they expected to win plenty in 2014. But this? This, Spiedel says, was something different. “There was a focus on this team,” he says, “something that I hadn’t really seen before.”
Great teams in any sport tend to boast that blend of tangible and intangible strengths, and it was just that sort of mix—depth and talent, leadership and focus—that carried the Big Red to historic success this spring. Denison opened the season with 19 consecutive wins before seeing its recordsetting season end with its first, and only, loss in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament. For longtime coach Mike Caravana and his squad, it was a sudden and disappointing end that did little to dampen the joy of a phenomenal run.
“I’ve been doing this for a while, and I can tell you, this group of seniors and juniors set a very high standard,” says Caravana, who saw his team set program records for goals (320), assists (189), and total points (509). “I think it mostly has to do with personnel. Our level of practice every day was really high, and it’s easier to go practice when your best players not only play well, but influence everyone else to play well.”
Even in that 19-0 start, some wins meant more than others. For Caravana, back-to-back early season road trips to Washington & Lee and Roanoke gave Denison a chance to test itself against top-15 opponents just four days apart. The latter, a 12-4 win, had a lasting impact. “We dominated a very good team on their own turf,” Speidel says. “After that game, we knew we could hang with the best.”
A 19-17 win over Stevens looks less impressive on paper, but it was how the Big Red won that mattered: Trailing 17-16 late in the game, Denison rallied for three goals in the final two minutes to seal a memorable comeback. Senior Eddie Vita ’14, who finished the season with a team-high 74 points, scored the game-tying and -winning goals; sophomore Eric Baumgardner ’16, who won countless key face-offs while filling in for injured senior standout Chip Phillips ’14, was emblematic of the younger players who played vital roles on a veteran-laden team.
Then, in April, just 11 days apart, came a pair of wins over Ohio Wesleyan. In the first, it was another sophomore, James Meager ’16, whose fourth-quarter tally capped a come-frombehind 10-9 victory over the Bishops. Less than two weeks later, the rivals met again in the NCAC championship game, and it wasn’t close. Denison clinched the conference crown and bragging rights with a 14-5 victory, sealing a season double that Caravana calls “a monumental achievement.”
“I’ll miss those games, man,” Speidel says of the heated battles with OWU. “The first one, I think we overthought a little bit. The second game was more of what we were all about.”
Denison entered NCAA play at 17-0, and the winning streak reached 19 after tournament victories over Centre and Aurora. It was Salisbury, ranked No. 2 in the nation, that finally figured out the Big Red. The Seagulls, eventual NCAA runners-up, jumped out to a 7-1 halftime lead over Denison in their NCAA quarterfinal meeting and held on for a 15-5 win.
Despite falling short of the national title, Denison claimed a slew of season-ending accolades: Speidel, Vita, and Baumgardner earned spots on the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association All-America teams, as did senior Austin Campbell ’16 and junior Drew Newman ’15. Freshman Luke Walsh ’17 earned NCAC Newcomer of the Year honors, setting a Denison rookie scoring record with a team-high 51 goals. And Caravana, in his 21st season, was named Lacrosse Magazine’s Division III Coach of the Year.