Hoyas breeze past women's lacrosse, 18-2

For the second time in three games, the women's lacrosse team faced one of the nation's top teams. But unlike last weekend, when the Blue Devils surprised No. 3 Virginia and kept the game close, Duke was blown away by 10th-ranked Georgetown 18-2 Sunday afternoon in Washington, D.C.

Even before the game began, the team was knocked out-of-sync when junior goalkeeper Natalie LaMarque was suspended from the team indefinitely for what head coach Kerstin Kimel said was breaking a major team rule while on the trip. LaMarque had performed solidly in the Blue Devils' last two games against Virginia and Virginia Tech, and her improved play gave Duke confidence against the Hoyas. Freshman Erin Miller, who had not gained much playing time this year, replaced LaMarque in goal.

Freshman Meghan McLaughlin said the team only knew that LaMarque was not with them and that she had broken some team rule. She said missing one player made the team feel at a loss and that not having LaMarque was definitely a distraction. Still, Kimel was unwilling to make excuses for the team's play. She said the team looked very confident in warm-ups, but that the confidence disappeared once the game began.

"This was a weekend that we were all looking forward to and ended on a bad note," Kimel said. "It was horrible; it was easily our worst effort. We just did not show up to play."

The Hoyas (10-2) scored the first seven goals of the game before the Blue Devils even got on the scoreboard. Duke (2-12) was held scoreless for nearly the first 18 minutes of the first half before junior Jodi Taylor found the net with 2:10 left in the first stanza. Kimel said the Blue Devils had chances on goal, but Hoya freshman goalkeeper Chris Lindsey was just too strong. Lindsey entered the game with the highest save percentage in the nation, and she displayed her talents Sunday afternoon, giving up only two goals while stopping 16 shots.

While Duke scored the final goal of the first half, it could not take that momentum into the second half. Less than a minute into the second half, the Hoyas added their eighth goal of the game. The Blue Devils answered that goal with one of their own, when freshman Kendra Basner scored off of an assist from McLaughlin. But that would be it for Duke, as Georgetown outscored the Blue Devils 11-1 in the second half. The Hoyas gained many of their goals on fast breaks on the goal, often times with no Duke defender standing between the Hoya attacker and the goalie.

"It got very frustrating," McLaughlin said. "The fast breaks were very frustrating. We were not able to collect ourselves and get it together. We never got into a rhythm."

To make things worse, the Hoyas kept all of their starters in for most of the game, while the Blue Devils substituted at will. And with the starters in the game, Georgetown never let up on the offensive attack.