A red silhouette of the city skyline with an outline of the Rocky Mountains adorns the field at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.

Inside one of the many reminders of the University of Denver’s connection to the Mile High City sits a Big East logo.

The latter is, technically, out of place, given the conference’s headquarters are nearly 1,800 miles away in New York City. But that juxtaposition of two very different parts of the country fits the Pioneers women’s lacrosse team.

As DU readies for an eighth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance with Friday’s first-round game against Florida in Boulder (4 p.m. ESPN+), it does so with a diverse roster that has built one of the top defenses in the nation.

Coach Liza Kelly, now in her 20th season in charge of the Pios, and her team are represented by double the number of states (14) as they allow goals per game (under seven, second nationally).

“I honestly think it makes us closer as a team because there’s not just one group that sticks together,” talented sophomore goalkeeper Lexi Gwaku told The Denver Gazette. “We’re all from different areas. We all played differently coming in, but then we’re able to mesh it all together and win our games.”

While the roster consists of players from the East Coast to Florida to Texas to California all the way up to the Pacific Northwest, there’s one theme on which Kelly has built the roster. It’s a recruiting strategy that has fueled the program’s success over the last decade.

“The No. 1 thing is competitiveness,” Kelly told The Denver Gazette. “It’s somebody that wants to beat you in checkers as much as they want to beat you on the field, and I think they carry that over in all aspects of life. They’re incredible students. They want to be the best in their community, and I think that that competitive edge allows them to mesh quickly together.”

That collective competitive spirit is evident in practice, something junior attacker Olivia Ripple noticed as soon as she arrived in Denver. Ripple is a California native and the team’s leading scorer.

“We all come from different coaching styles, but at the end of the day, Liza does an amazing job recruiting the most competitive kids across the country. I don’t know how she does it,” Ripple told The Denver Gazette. “Our competitive levels that we’re playing at (in practice), it’s game-like. It’s super beneficial for us and an advantage when we go into games (because) we’ve been in high-pressure situations during practices which prepare us for games where we might be down one or two goals.”

That hasn’t been the case much lately for the Pios. They enter the NCAA Tournament with a 15-3 record overall and a four-game win streak that includes a sixth straight Big East tournament championship. The stellar defensive unit in front of Gwaku has allowed double-digit goals only twice and the last time was in early March.

“It’s really fun for me because I think putting the defense together is like putting a puzzle together,” Kelly said. “You try one piece and it might not work in one spot, but then all of a sudden you flip it and who they’re next to really makes a difference and the chemistry they build.

“Early in the season, we were definitely moving the players around a bit and then really felt confident (from), probably, April on (with) really leaving people in spots and letting them build with the person next to them and I think that’s what has really helped us be successful.”

The only team in the country that has allowed fewer goals per game is the host of the regional this weekend, Colorado. The other two teams in the pod, Florida and Jacksonville, rank in the top 10 nationally in goals per game, posing an interesting clash of styles in Friday’s matchups.

“For all of the teams, they’re elite ball carriers and they play really good lacrosse,” Kelly said. “They have their heads up, they look for each other; it’s very unselfish play. So, I think that does pose a challenge for us in a zone defense. We will stick with a zone defense. I don’t think that’s gonna surprise anybody. 

“The slide packages or who we put pressure on or who we don’t put pressure on are some of the things we adjust going into the game and then have backup adjustments from there.”

The Pios are fueled by more than adjustments. They are fueled by a superpower that shows DNA from just about every part of the country.

“The belief that we have as a team … I trust everyone on the defense, the defense trusts everyone on the offense and everywhere in between,” Ripple said. “We’re such a special group because we are so diverse in what we’re good at on the field. At the end of the day, we all come together and trust and believe in every single person that you’re standing next to on the field and that’s something really unique to Denver and the culture Liza’s built here.”

NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament 

Boulder Regional (all games at Prentup Field) 

Friday 

4 p.m. — Colorado vs. Jacksonville 

7 p.m. — Denver vs. Florida 

Sunday 

1 p.m. — CU-Jacksonville winner vs. DU-Florida winner 

— The Denver Gazette