How the Utah Utes took a burgeoning sport to a second run at a national championship

When the Utah lacrosse team joined the NCAA Division I ranks in 2019, the lacrosse scene in the Beehive State was beginning to boom.

The university had just become the only Pac-12 school with a lacrosse program that wasn’t a club. The Utah High School Activities Association was starting boys and girls’ lacrosse as a sanctioned sport that very same year.

And now that the Utes are about to play in their second consecutive NCAA Tournament, those in the program know what a deep run could mean for the advancement of the sport in Utah.

“I know that a lot of high school recruits are looking at who’s making it furthest, what teams are competing for those national championships,” senior attacker Tyler Bradbury said. “I think that us making a deep run on the NCAAs would definitely help that a lot.”

The Utes face Duke in the first round of the tournament Saturday at 12:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

The Blue Devils have a storied history. They’ve reached 14 Final Fouls and won three national championships, the last being in 2014.

For its part, Utah is on a nine-game win streak heading into Saturday. While the start of the season challenged them with injuries, the Utes found their stride briefly before suffering a disappointing and frustrating conference loss to Air Force.

That blemish — the team’s first conference loss since joining the Atlantic Sun Conference — fueled Utah to where it is today.

“We just had to refocus and just kind of recognize our end goal and realize that’s very much still in sight,” said sophomore attacker Ryan Stines, who was named the 2024 ASUN Lacrosse Player of the Year.

The loss to Air Force and the nine-game win streak that followed is a microcosm of Utah’s entire existence as a Division I lacrosse program. They had an independent schedule for the first three seasons and only won 12 total games. The 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the Utes have been steadily improving since then. They missed the NCAA Tournament in 2022, then made it in 2023 and lost to Notre Dame in the first round. This year, while they know the history and talent that comes with Duke, the team has confidence it can make a run due to its contingent of talented seniors and the tournament experience last year.

Lacrosse, concurrently, has seen steady growth in Utah in the last few years as well.

Participation in high school lacrosse went from 4,193 total in 2021-22 to 4,474 in 22-23, which is the most recent participation data from the National Federation of High Schools.

The Premier Lacrosse League held a tournament in Utah during the pandemic, and just last year made the Beehive State home to one of its teams, the Archers.

“Any time the PLL has visited Utah, the crowds have been amazing and people are passionate about the sport of lacrosse,” Marcus Holman, former assistant lacrosse coach at the University of Utah, said at the time. “I think they’re going to be one of the best fan bases in the country.”

Utes coach Andrew McMinn said aside from continuing to win at a high level, his team also hosts as many clinics and finds other ways to be involved in the community. That’s why beating Duke, and potentially others along the way, could pay dividends long after this season.

“We take a heck of a lot of pride in just being kind of at the forefront of helping grow the game out west,” McMinn said.