Of all the NCAA Division III men’s lacrosse quarterfinal matchups, Denison has perhaps the toughest.

The Big Red, after hosting early-round wins over Rhodes and Concordia Wisconsin, will now trek to face Salisbury on Wednesday night.

The challenge isn’t lost on coach Mike Caravana, whose program has a 3-22 all-time record against the Sea Gulls. So much of the challenge, he said, comes down to someone who won’t even play: Salisbury coach Jim Berkman.

“They have arguably the greatest coach in lacrosse history in Coach Berkman,” Caravana said. “What Jimmy is really good at is not only recruiting top players and having a winning program, but his teams get better as the season goes on. When you play Salisbury early in the season, you might be able to find some cracks in the armor. But it's hard to find the same at the end of the season, or new ones. That's what Jimmy does better than anyone else in our game at any level.”

Berkman’s results speak for themselves, too: 22 Capital Athletic Conference titles, 12 NCAA tournament titles and 30 straight NCAA bids. With a 552-62 record, Berkman is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA men's lacrosse history.

The last time these two foes met, Salisbury earned a 12-11 win in the 2017 national semifinals. Salisbury also won a 2016 quarterfinal matchup, 11-10 in overtime. These contests, as of late, have been nail-biters.

“Playing Salisbury, everything is magnified a bit, and you want to do the best you can at every moment of every game,” Caravana said. “That’s what it takes to compete with them at the highest level.”

Traveling to Salisbury also represents a logistical challenge for Denison, Caravana said. They’re a 495-mile drive apart, which is just below the NCAA minimum of 500 miles to fly. So the Big Red are taking a bus from Ohio to Maryland over two days and staying in hotels to break up the trip.

And when they arrive, they hope the likes of Peter Pittroff, Spencer Butler and Brooks Davy can go off. They’ve combined for 273 points so far this year.

“It's trying to win that play, win that five minutes, win that quarter and we'll see what we can do,” Caravana said. “But at this level, with the elite eight teams in the country, it’s pretty competitive. It won’t be easy.”