The women's lacrosse team broke out of its recent slump Thursday night, using a hat trick by Meghan McLaughlin and solid goaltending from Shannon Chaney to down Richmond at Duke Lacrosse Stadium, 8-5.
The victory ended a five-game losing streak for Duke (4-6).
After ten minutes of scoreless back-and-forth play, Duke began to assert itself. Freshman Tricia Martin netted the Blue Devils their first goal, and they never looked back. Just 17 seconds later at the 20:03 mark, freshman Keri Dunn added another score for Duke. McLaughlin, a sophomore, then connected twice, first with 17:37 left in the first half on a misplay by the Spider goalie, and again with under five minutes remaining, to stake the Blue Devils to a 4-0 lead which they would never relinquish.
"I was just getting open, using the picks," McLaughlin said. "The plays we set up worked well."
Despite the seemingly impressive victory, Duke coach Kerstin Kimel was not entirely happy with her team's performance against the 1-10 Spiders.
"We didn't play very well at all," Kimel said. "We had hoped to come out here and just control the game from start to finish and that was our goal. Even though we won, we never felt like we were really in control of the game. We certainly never played the way we're capable of playing and that's upsetting.
Kimel added that the Blue Devils' largest weaknesses on the year stuck out again Thursday night. Specifically transition defense and discipline on attack were problems that continued to plague Duke, despite the fact that it came out on top.
The players shared Kimel's concern.
"We didn't play controlled," McLaughlin said. "We won, we came out on top, but I felt that as a team we could have had more control, could have felt more confident, all throughout the game."
With less than two minutes to go in the first half, Richmond junior Meredith Ryan scored the first of her three goals on the evening. Ryan also collected an assist to finish the game with four points.
Junior Amy Murnick answered by scoring on a free position shot with 38 seconds remaining in the first half, and the Blue Devils went into halftime leading 5-1.
The second half saw Richmond outscore Duke 4-3, but the Spiders were unable to overcome their first half deficit. Richmond senior Laurel Hagy found the back of the net less than seven minutes into the second stanza to make the score 5-2. But the Blue Devils notched the next two tallies, a free position shot by McLaughlin and a goal from freshman Becky Morris.
The lead was secured with solid defense and goaltending. Chaney, a freshman, only had to make four saves on the night, but she frequently left the crease to scoop up important ground balls for Duke.
"Shannon was absolutely incredible," junior middie Karen Sutton said. "She had such a wonderful game. She keeps us as defenders in the game all the time."
In addition to Chaney, the defensive unit-which Kimel cited as one of the team's strengths-also played strongly, limiting Richmond to only 13 shots and forcing 21 turnovers.
"I felt the defense really played as a unit today," junior Heather Keeney said. "I think that our midfield defenders were doing a really good job getting open in the midfield and making the connections, which is really important in the transition game."
From here, Duke's competition gets tougher as it heads to Virginia for a game this Saturday against the fifth-ranked Cavaliers.
"This was a sloppy win, but it gives us confidence," McLaughlin said. "We have a lot to work on tomorrow, but I think we'll be able to hold our head up high, and go in with confidence."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.