Career
He has coached seven National Collegiate Athletic Association DI championship teams, including six at Princeton University and one at the University of Denver. Tierney"s teams have had a combined winning percentage of.750. In 1973, he played on the USILA national championship team
Following college, Tierney pursued a master"s degree at Adelphi University, and coached high school lacrosse at Great Neck South High School, then Levittown Memorial High School.
In 1982, Tierney"s took his first collegiate coaching position with the Rochester Institute of Technology. He took the team to its first National Collegiate Athletic Association tournaments in both 1983 and 1984.
Following this success, Tierney joined the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays as an assistant lacrosse coach (winning two national championships), and also served as head coach of the soccer team from 1985 to 1987. In 1988, Tierney accepted the position as head coach of the Princeton Tigers.
He acquired a program that was underdeveloped, and quickly turned it around.
In 2002, Tierney was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame with the distinction of being "a truly great coach."
Tierney began coaching the men"s lacrosse team at the University of Denver on July 1, 2009. Tierney called the change a "wonderful opportunity to start this new chapter in my life."
On May 25, 2015 Tierney led Denver to the team"s first National Championship. They beat Maryland by a score of 10-5.
Denver was the 10th different school to raise the trophy and the first team west of the Appalachian Mountains.