LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- You might say that Mike Pressler was on the defensive. In the span of two weeks, his second-seeded Blue Devils (10-4) have single-handedly defeated every other team in the world of ACC men's lacrosse, revitalizing a squad left for dead earlier in the season after a number of embarrassing losses, including one at Harvard.
Pressler's team rebounded after a couple of weeks of increased conditioning with a last-minute regular season win over the Cavaliers and rode that momentum all the way to the ACC tournament title yesterday after defeating top-seeded Maryland (10-2) 10-6 at Disney's Wide World of Sports.
"It's unbelievable, I can't even explain it," most valuable player Scott Bross said. "We've had some really good teams I've been on in the past and they never won an ACC championship. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
But it was defense on which Duke depended in order to win only its second conference title--the first coming under Pressler in 1995. This defense allowed only eight goals in the final half of the semifinal round and the final yesterday.
"They've come a long way since March 3, when Maryland played us last, I can tell you that," said Pressler of his team's newfound defensive intensity, referring to the team's worst loss of the season, a 13-5 decision in College Park. "One thing we do is we really study personnel. We play a matchup game; we want to match up our
In that matchup zone, Joe Watt, a key defender, was credited with limiting Maryland senior Buggs Combs, the Terrapins' leading scorer to one goal.
"Our big emphasis has been to be really physical," Watt said. In the beginning of the year, we weren't as physical as we wanted to be. So when we came out, we wanted to really make sure we were hitting people, sliding with our bodies as well as our sticks."
With Maryland leading for the only time in the match 1-0 at the end of the first quarter, it was Duke's offense that exploded in the second quarter, as Chris Hartofolis found Dan Chemetti with 6:34 remaining to tie the game up 1-1. Nine seconds later, it was Kevin Brennan who found his way to the goal to give Duke the lead 2-1, a lead which Duke would build upon until the last nine seconds - that is, when Terrence Keaney scored Duke's last goal of the half to put Duke up 6-2 at the half, a lead from which Maryland never recovered, despite a push in the third quarter when the Terrapins narrowed the score to 7-5 in favor of Duke.
Bross, who won 22 of 34 face-offs in both rounds of the tournament, said the second-quarter blitz is Duke lacrosse at its best.
"It's all about getting into rhythm," he said. "When we start feeling it, we're really good.. We got in a rhythm and made those plays."
Pressler said that taking their attackmen out of the scoring equation was a key to stopping Maryland.
"In our last game game we lost to Maryland, of the 13 goals they scored, 10 were scored by their attackmen," Pressler said. "Last night, against Virginia, their attackmen scored 10 of their 12 goals. So if we keep their attack out of the game, they're going to struggle."
The finals were a reversal for the Blue Devils, who found themselves down 7-3 at the half against third-seeded North Carolina (11-8) Friday night, only to outscore the Tar Heels 8-2 in the second half to pick up the 11-9 win.
Pressler said his team was really tight and also too selfish on offense and made some dumb penalties in the first half before loosening up in the second half and dominating the Tar Heels in a flawless execution, tightening up sloppy offensive play and reining in the Tar Heels' offense with more physical defense.
"Originally, I think they thought they were going to go to Space Mountain and visit with Donald Duck and all," Pressler said, emphasizing the uncontrolled nature of the weekend's tournament.
Despite two more regular season games left, including a tough match next Saturday at Hofstra, Pressler said his team is more than ready for the NCAAs and hoped that the ACC tournament win would secure the Blue Devils a strong berth in the tournament.
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